If you felt isolated and susceptible in the battle against cyber-space terrorism - virus and malware attacks - then there is no need. Numerous forces have joined together to help safeguard the nation's computer infrastructure from abuse. Just like the US armed forces guard the homeland - and indeed every nation has armed forces - there is an army of technical staff out there who have put their heads together to come up with computer security and defense strategies.



One such agency is The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). The department of Homeland Security has collaborated with other private and public sectors to respond to national cyber attacks and correlate defense. You can learn a lot about them and about viruses from their website http://www.us-cert.gov/ , from which you can also subscribe to mailing lists for firsthand knowledge.

US-CERT professionals evaluate and decrease the threat of cyber attacks, interact with other federal agencies, research communities, industry and governments at both state and local levels to decide if and what action should be taken. And they are responsible for alerting the general public as to what action needs to be taken.

They are available for communication from the general public about cyber issues that may arise. You can report a virus to them and they will investigate it to determine its seriousness and find how to stop it from spreading. Confidential information may be submitted through the Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) Program. This will be safeguarded from public disclosure.

There are many other government agencies that work to try and preserve computer security, whether their own or that of the general public. But generally it is private organizations that do the most work in creating patches to exclude new viruses or in upgrading anti-virus software. Let a new virus spring into being and a whole host of goodies also swing into action. And they soon spot ways to eradicate the danger.

Microsoft works hard to give the personal computer user additional protection. Parents can get special programs that permit them to watch over their children and protect them from identity theft and corruptive viewing. Windows Vista and Xbox parental controls will control the type of movies they observe and the games they play online. The parent can become the Administrator and allow only limited or restricted use for the children's user accounts. Instant Messenger can be configured to only allow known contacts.