McAfee VIRUSSCAN 5.1 Administrator's Manual page 16

About VirusScan Software
The new release also adds multiplatform support for Windows 95, Windows
98, Windows ME, Windows NT Workstation v4.0, and Windows 2000
Professional, all in a single package with a single installer, but optimized to
take advantage of the benefits each platform offers. Windows NT Workstation
v4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional users, for example, can run VirusScan
software with differing security levels that provide a range of enforcement
options for system administrators. That way, corporate anti-virus policy
implementation can vary from the relatively casual—where an administrator
might lock down a few critical settings, for example—to the very strict, with
predefined settings that users cannot change or disable at all.
At the same time, as the cornerstone product in the McAfee VirusScan's Active
Virus Defense and Total Virus Defense security suites, VirusScan software
retains the same core features that have made it the utility of choice for the
corporate desktop. These include a virus detection rate second to none,
powerful heuristic capabilities, Trojan horse program detection and removal,
rapid- response updating with weekly virus definition (.DAT) file releases,
daily beta .DAT releases, and EXTRA.DAT file support in crisis or outbreak
situations. Because more than 300 new viruses or malicious software agents
appear each month McAfee VirusScan backs its software with a worldwide
reach and 24-hour "follow the sun" coverage from its Anti-Virus Emergency
Response Team (AVERT).
Even with the rise of viruses and worms that use e-mail to spread, that flood
e-mail servers, or that infect groupware products and file servers directly, the
individual desktop remains the single largest source of infections, and is often
the most vulnerable point of entry. VirusScan software acts as a tireless
desktop sentry, guarding your system against more venerable virus threats
and against the latest threats that lurk on websites, often without the site
owner's knowledge, or spread via e-mail, whether solicited or not.
In this environment, taking precautions to protect yourself from malicious
software is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Consider the extent to which
you rely on the data on your computer and the time, trouble and money it
would take to replace that data if it became corrupted or unusable because of
a virus infection. Corporate anti-virus cleanup costs, by some estimates,
topped $16 billion in 1999 alone. Balance the probability of infection—and
your company's share of the resulting costs—against the time and effort it
takes to put a few common sense security measures in place, and you can
quickly see the utility in protecting yourself.
Even if your own data is relatively unimportant to you, neglecting to guard
against viruses might mean that your computer could play unwitting host to
a virus that could spread to computers that your co-workers and colleagues
use. Checking your hard disk periodically with VirusScan software
significantly reduces your system's vulnerability to infection and keeps you
from losing time, money and data unnecessarily.
16 McAfee VirusScan