Hopefully your business computers are protected by an antivirus program that can stop viruses from spreading and remove them from infected PCs. This is good planning and part of a comprehensive approach to protect your information assets. But have you thought about what you would do if your business was attacked by the H1N1 "swine flu" virus? How would you contain the spread of this disease?

Your comprehensive disaster recovery plan addresses how to continue business operations if a fire or other disaster interrupts normal operations. It should also address a pandemic as well. Just like you have backups of your computer files, you should have backups for your personnel. Cross training employees to perform different job functions will provide the backup you need. Do it now before people start getting sick.

But how about employees that are not sick but don't want to (nor should they) come to work when everyone else is dropping-like-flies? Telecommuting can save your business and protect your employees that are still healthy. Telecommuting takes some planning and practice but it can be done with a small investment in equipment and software. Even if you don't buy it right away, developing a list of equipment, software and a project plan for implementation can save days of down-time.

• How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan
• Work From Home - Is Telecommuting Right for Your Office?
• How to Decide If You Can Work At Home

Mozilla's Internet browser, Firefox has at least eleven critical security vulnerabilities that must be patched as soon as possible. Most of these security flaws exploit programming bugs in the Firefox software that expose users to drive-by downloads. These drive-by downloads require no user interaction and will allow a hacker that has attacked an existing site or created a fake website in order to entice unsuspecting web surfers to visit it and run his nasty code on your computer.

If you are running Firefox, you should update your software as soon as possible. If you have enabled the browser's automatic update feature, the software has already been patched. If your firewall or network is preventing the automatic updates, then in order to get the latest patches, start Firefox, click on "Help" and follow the directions provided by Mozilla.

Amongst all the whoop-la with the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, there was another record set by Microsoft. On Tuesday, October 13th, Microsoft released its biggest group of patches ever. There were a total of 34 security holes fixed across a variety of operating systems and applications. As the world and the press raves about Windows 7, let's not forget to maintain the systems that are currently running our businesses.

Two of the biggest applications that need updating are Internet Explorer (IE) and Windows Media Player. Most people realize that Internet explorer is used to surf the Internet. But what most people don't realize is that Windows Media Player also acts as a plug-in for IE and is used frequently to play multimedia clips and sound bites while you are surfing. Both of these applications have security holes that could allow a hacker to take over your computer. Be smart and run Windows Update.

If your business is planning on rolling out Windows 7 throughout your organization, then there are three things you need to do: Prototype! Prototype! Prototype! I have been experimenting in our lab at the college. It's not going to be an issue of "if" we are going to go to Windows 7; it is a matter of "when".

In my first attempt to install Windows 7 on one of the lab computers, the Upgrade Checker told me the on-board video card was not powerful enough to run Windows 7. I purchased our "standard" ATI video card that we use on PCs that need more video horse-power. Windows 7 installed just fine except there is not a Windows 7 driver for that video card and we cannot take full advantage of all the features that the video card has to offer. We are currently searching for a suitable drive now.

Before you make the move to Windows 7, it is to your advantage to prototype the installation on every basic type of computer in your company. We did and at least we know up front that there is going to be an additional $150 expense for each PC we want to upgrade.