Keeping anti-virus software up to date. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Call it a new year's resolution for your computer. Most new computers ship with anti-virus software and consumers buy lots of it online or in computer stores. But all too often, we don't keep the virus definitions up to date. And that, says Pedro Bustamante of Panda Software, can be a costly mistake... .

"Viruses are evolving very quickly. New types of threats are coming in that are infecting users, infecting companies."

With some of the top selling anti virus programs, users have to be pro-active... and tell the software to download updates. Panda's approach, with Titanium Antivirus 2004, is to completely automate the process...

"When you are using Titanium for your home computer, Titanium is designed to be extremely easy to use. Just install and forget... which are the needs of the home users. They don't need to have to worry about configuring the software, updating it, etcetera, etcetera. Some people might change the configuration, disable the resident driver, the permanent scan and not remember to turn it back on. So it's as if they didn't have one. They might think they're protected when they're actually not."

Panda guards against those types of mistakes. The company faces stiff competition in the anti-virus business from Symantec and Network Associates. The investment in whichever product you choose is worthwhile... .as long as the software is kept current. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.