November 20th, 2006
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For a virus or similar program to have any great impact it needs to be able to spread from one machine to another. They are specifically designed to get access to parts of your computer system that allow for communication with other machines. Below is a discussion of some of the most common methods.
Boot Infectors
Every disk (hard disk, floppy, CD, DVD) contains a boot sector whether it is a bootable disk or not. When a computer is turned on, it looks for boot information. If the computer finds a disk with boot information, it reads that information and uses it to properly start the computer. If for some reason that boot information is infected with a virus, the virus is activated and possibly transferred to the computer’s hard drive (if the infection was on a CD for example).
Once the boot code on the hard drive is infected the virus will be loaded into your computer’s memory every time you start your computer. From memory the boot virus can travel to any and every disk that is put into your computer. This is how the infection spreads.
Most boot viruses could be on a system for a long time without causing problems, simply existing there to spread themselves. Often such viruses are designed to activate their bad behaviour on a specific date (Halloween for example). There are some nasty boot viruses that will destroy the boot information or force a complete format of the hard drive immediately after they get into a computer.
Program Infectors
When an infected application is run the virus activates and is loaded into memory. While the virus is in memory any new program file that you run can become infected. This means that there will be increasingly more applications on your system that are infected. Multiple infections are very common and will certainly cause system problems.
Program files may function without any problems for some time but eventually they will have problems or multiple infections brings the entire computer system down. The data the program produces may be a first sign of infection such as saving files without proper names, or with incorrect/incomplete data being saved.
Viruses of this type are often designed to seek out programs that are used to share information between users/computers such as email applications, screen savers, office document Macros, and self-extracting compressed files.
Through e-mail attachments
Many of the most dangerous viruses are primarily spread through e-mail attachments – files that can be sent along with an e-mail message. In such cases, the user of an infected computer unknowingly attaches an infected file to an email message, and then sends the email to a friend or colleague. When the email is received, the virus is launched when the file attachment is opened, thus infecting a new computer. Email messages with animations, automated greeting cards, jokes, photographs, spreadsheet and document files, all have been documented to contain virus files.
More and more frequently these days mass mailing email worms/viruses are being released. These attacks AUTOMATICALLY scan your computer’s files for any email address it can find and then uses your email application to AUTOMATICALLY send infected messages to any email address found in any file on your computer (not just email message files).
It is important to be aware of the emails that you open to make sure that they do not contain harmful viruses. Even emails from family and friends could have a virus, if that person’s computer is infected. This is where an anti-virus software would be really helpful in detecting if there is a virus in any incoming messages.
About the Author:
Antivirus software and general PC protection and maintenance are essential for safe and secure computing. Right now learn to easily block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software.
Written by mellow on November 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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Internet users worldwide, may not realize that there is a monster, known as spyware, that has taken up residence in their computers. Infact, there could be several monsters, going by various names, such as adware, trojans, malware etc. They could be described as cookie monsters of the internet world.
How do these monsters thrive in a computer ? They feed off the information they gather about people and often times they are well fed. These creatures are not conducive to your wellbeing. They infest and corrupt the workings of a computer and they transmit personal information to their buddies at the other end of the internet line. They have lots of such buddies that want to get to know peoples surfing habits, their online purchases, their interests, their chats, their credit worthiness, their birth date and the list goes on and on.
Spyware and adware help the workings of promotional companies. They can only be successful in their promotions, if they can target people in an effective manner, by getting to know their audience as best they can. It is only by understanding peoples needs, likes and dislikes that they can send out promotional material with the hope of generating sales. However, sales materials may only be the tip of the iceberg, and while this may be more of an annoyance, the infiltration by spyware can lead to loss of privacy, loss of credit card details and lead to stolen identity. When personal information is stolen there is no limit to the extent of damage this can cause and the hardships it can bring about to an individual or a family.
Spyware and adware have an easy entryway into computer systems. They usually piggyback with other software downloads, including shareware, freeware, p2p sharing of files, music downloads etc. Once lodged into a computer they can reside indefinitely, till detected and removed.
The solution is to have spyware detection and spyware removal software.
The authors site can be viewed at http://www.DeleteSpyware.net
About the Author
Julian Pereira Enjoys writing articles that are related to Internet Security and computer privacy issues. His site can be viewed at http://www.DeleteSpyware.net
Written by mellow on November 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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The original PC-Cillin was an antivirus application. In 2006 it’s grown into a full Internet security suite with firewall, spam filter and parental controls.
Computer security is essential to prevent PC performance loss and identity theft. Spyware clogs system resources, taking up disk space and slowing down the PC. Some may also be capable of stealing personal information. Fake sites to gather information are also plentiful and many emails try to fool the reader into visiting one of these sites to enter credit card numbers or logins to other legitimate sites.
TrendMicro PC-Cillin Internet Security suite is the perfect companion for the home and small office computer, providing a range of benefits in a single, affordable package to protect against these dangers:
* comprehensive antivirus protection: automatically updated to provide constant, efficient protection of emails, browsing and removable media.
* spyware protection: real time and scheduled scans plus quarantine management feature for files which cannot be immediately removed
* phishing defense: patent-pending technology for detecting fake websites designed to steal personal information
* wi-fi intrusion alerts: for when an unauthorized user taps into a wireless connection
* improved spam filtering: now with Microsoft Outlook integration and advanced reporting
* personal firewall: for protection from hackers and network viruses
* network control: to mange protection across any PC in the home or small network
* vulnerability scanning: regular scans to alert when vulnerabilities are found plus access to Windows Update
* advanced parental control: block inappropriate websites and content from the children
* simple, clear interface: easy to understand and control for PC novices and experts alike
* email antivirus protection compatible with Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0, Microsoft Outlook 2000/2002/2003, Netscape 7.1, Eudora Pro 6J, AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Thunderbird 1.0
* instant messaging shield works with Windows Messenger 4.7/5.0, MSN Messenger 6.2, ICQ 5 and ICQ Lite, AOL 5.1
* 30 day trial: download and assess PC-Cillin before purchasing
For any questionable files which arise and are not confirmed by PC-Cillin as an Internet parasite, they can be submitted to Trend Micro’s EDoctor Lab for analysis and a response can be expected within 48 hours. This system ensures if there is a malicious file which has not gotten into the database yet, it surely will do soon once it has been discovered on the loose. Public input into research is invaluable in keeping security applications up to date.
TrendMicro PC-Cillin Internet Security is available as a single license home package, or in multiple license packages for the small office. It is fully customizable to provide relevant protection for different machines, or even different environments, for example, on a laptop which travels between work, office and on the road.
PC-Cillin is currently only available for Windows computers, running the following specifications:
* Pentium 233MHz or above with Windows98/98 SE/Me
* Pentium 300MHz or above with Windows 2000/XP (Home or Professional)
* 128MB RAM and 120MB hard disk space
* Internet access is required for upgrades: Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape 7.1, AOL 7.0 or Firefox 1.0 and higher
About the Author
Ben Sikes recommends reading the full product review of TrendMicro PC-Cillin Internet Security at Identity Theft Spy.
Written by mellow on November 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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