If you suspect that you may have a virus, and don't have any antivirus software in place, we recommend you use the online virus scanning system from Trend Micro.

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With over 500 new viruses discovered every month, it is extremely important to be kept up to date with the latest virus activity.

On this page you will find a live update of the latest 5 viruses doing the rounds (see left) and also tips and techniques to help prevent the spread of viruses through your computer systems.

Things to look out for:

If you get an e-mail attachment from an unknown source, do not open the attachment. Look out for things like irrelevant or unexpected subject matter, bad English and impersonal greetings.

Also, be aware of hoax viruses. These are e-mails with no attachments but can be just as destructive since they suggest, for example, that a Windows System file is a virus and must be deleted. Deleting the file mentioned could cause irreparable damage to your operating system. Simply delete these e-mails and certainly do not forward them on.

GIFs, JPEGs and other picture files cannot harbour viruses themselves, but look out for double file extensions. These are viruses trying to disguise themselves as harmless files. Look for filenames such as: picture.gif.vbs or picture.jpg.vbs. There is absolutely no reason why you should receive files in this form since they have no use. Delete them.

Be careful when downloading files form the Internet, make sure that the file is coming form a reputable website. If you must download it anyway, Download it directly to a floppy disk and check the file first with your own virus checking software.

Check you have the latest update of your antivirus software installed to ensure the latest virus definitions are installed, and run a scan once updated.

Backup your work regularly so that if a virus does destroy your files, you can revert to the backup.

Remember that viruses don't only get distributed via e-mail, they can be brought in on disks etc from employees working from home or from clients. Always scan 'alien' disks before extracting any information from them to ensure they are not infected.