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PATCHING THE WORMHOLES
The end of last year saw the proliferation of several new Internet "worms" whose spread proved particularly difficult to stop.

A worm is a self-replicating computer virus that does not necessarily attack files on a victim’s computer but instead spends its time duplicating itself. Many recent worms have taken advantage of defects in common e-mail programs to automatically send themselves out to everyone in a victim’s e-mail address book, spreading far and wide very quickly.

Most of these e-mail worms come in the form of a file attachment that must be opened to trigger the worm’s malicious behavior. However, the "Badtrans.B," "Aliz" and "Nimda" worms that made the rounds at the end of the year exploited a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser that made it possible for the worm to be launched without the victim’s taking any action other than downloading the message.

Anyone unfortunate enough to get one of these worms might be interested to know that months before they started spreading, Microsoft released a software "patch" to plug up the security hole the worms exploited. Did you download this patch? I know I didn’t.

Patches are small bits of programming code intended to fix the inevitable flaws that crop up in complex software applications after they are released. Any software maker is likely to have many patches to fix security holes, program crashes and other bugs in its products.

Downloading and applying these patches are an important part of maintaining the security of your system and often can solve some of those vexing software errors and bugs you may be experiencing.

The problem is, how do you know when new patches are needed or made available? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to that question.

Some programs can be configured to check for updates and patches any time you connect to the Internet. While this is probably the most foolproof approach to keeping your software up to date, downloading files at every login may become a nuisance for dial-up modem users.

The other option is to go online and search for new patches yourself. For operating system software and applications such as Web browsers, e-mail programs and financial applications that access the Internet, it’s a good idea to check the manufacturers’ Web sites on a regular basis to see if any new patches have been released.

Remember, too, that antivirus software provides a vital first line of defense when it comes to worms and other pernicious computer bugs. However, an antivirus application is only as good as its virus definitions—the compilations of signature programming code that allow the antivirus software to identify possible viruses.

Since new worms and viruses are discovered on a daily basis, it’s critical that you visit your antivirus software manufacturer’s Web site regularly to download the latest virus definitions. This is the only way to ensure that your antivirus protection is running at full strength.

Reported by Joe Hoyle, electronic media editor, "hoylej{at}ada.org".

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