For those of you who may not have heard yet, there's a new virus out that Internet marketers would be well advised to watch out for.
It's affectionately known as the Bubbleboy Virus and it is specially significant for the following reason:
It appears to be the first ever known virus that can infect your computer via an email, simply by your reading the mail. There's no attachment or executable file that you need to launch first.
Right now, Bubbleboy seems to only affect computers using Windows 95/98 with Internet Explorer 5 and Outlook or Outlook Express. But that's bad enough isn't it? Don't many of you use exactly such a combination of software?
While Bubbleboy doesn't appear to be too malicious, Internet marketers should still pay close attention to the lessons to be learnt.
Here's why:
As online business people, we rely heavily on our computers. We depend on them to work reliably practically 100% of the time. When our computers go down, business comes to a standstill.
While Bubbleboy is presently relatively harmless (it only uses your email address book to resend itself to other unsuspecting victims)....
...it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to write a really *horrid* version that can trash your whole machine via an innocent email.
Bubbleboy proves that infection via email is possible. Now it's just a question of how bad it will get, and how soon.
So before you become an unlucky victim of Bubbleboy Part II (or III or IV...), ask yourself this honestly:
How prepared are you in the event that a major virus infection wipes out your whole hard disk? What would you do if this very minute your PC were to hang and refuse to re- boot to your Windows desktop?
How are you going to respond to customer email when your computer is down?
Have you got a recovery plan worked out? Very importantly, have you kept up to date backups of ALL crucial data, such as customer databases, mailing lists, and sales accounts?
Remember, it isn't only viruses that can throw your PC out of whack. Just last week, we had a power surge in our area that fried my main workstation!
Thankfully, I had a pretty comprehensive backup plan ready, and I was able to get operational again in just a few hours.
Here are some things you can do to get prepared for a PC crisis
- Every 3 days, back up important data on at least 2 external disk sources (floppies, zip disks etc)
- Update Virus definition files every 5 days, and always, always scan any downloaded programs and suspect floppies you receive.
- Get a program such as ConfigSafe that allows you to restore your system configuration to the last known working one even when Windows won't boot. This is a must if you are one of those people who constantly try out downloaded shareware and freeware.
- Get a power surge protector (OK, OK, I finally got one this week...)
- Learn how to boot up your system from a floppy and reinstall Windows95/98 and all your important software. Trust me. Don't wait for a crisis to occur before you figure out how to do this.
Remember, Internet Marketers practically live and die by their computers. Don't ever take the technology for granted. One day, for whatever reason, it will fail.
Question is: Will *you* be ready for *your* major crash?
Click Here to Email Bob Smith
