Hi everyone,
I was recently at a meeting with some very sharp counterparts of mine. A rather interesting question came up concerning anti-virus and public computers in libraries. Should libraries still consider placing anti-virus software on the computers if after reboots, all the previous actions are then wiped away? A very good question, and probably 99% of the time, there should be no real danger. The only time that perhaps a problem may present itself is if a worm or other variances of a virus,spyware, or nusicanes propagated its way to the staff PCs which did not have desktop management software. And because of that reason, is why I still endorse using anti-virus software on public PCs in the library.
Now if you would rather not pay for anti-virus there is a solution. I can't take credit for this as I found this product through this very meeting with my counterparts. It is a product called ClamWin. There are some anti-virus software that are both free and effective but free to home users and not to libraries. ClamWin is a free open source product and is without any restrictions on where it can and can't be used. It will run on the Windows platform including Vista. I have installed the software on a test machine and tested it with a few test false viruses and it did pick those up.
In my opinion I still believe you should keep anti-virus on those machines, but now with ClamWin available, you have a free option to consider. If you have a comment about this topic, let's hear from you and I will post for all to see.
