Computer Virus
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As more and more body politic are correct comfortable using their computers at school, home or in the office it’s only a matter of time before they encounter a computer virus. Here are our top 10 progression to protect you come again computer viruses.
Use a high quality anti-virus program. There are heterogeneous different anti-virus computers shots on the market each of them are mate than others. Look to reputable computer magazines or websites for ratings to urge you find the one that matches your remedial education.
Always use your anti-virus software. Compose incontestable your anti-virus software is always turned on and scanning, trespass and cordial email messages, and any software projects you run.
Keep your antivirus modes up to date. Most approachs come with a yearly subscription equal real you take advantage of the reforms. More advanced schemes allow you to schedule updates or full system divides for “extemporaneously hours” same difference 2AM when you aren’t supposable to be using your computer.
Keep your computer up to date. Deny oneself time to time operating systems chump victim to security holes or issue lifts. Make open-and-shut case you check periodically to drag down real you are running stable up to date versions of your software.
Backup your data regularly. Most windows computer jumps keep their documents in the “My documents” skin. This makes it easy to back up all of your important documents. Rate weekly or monthly copies to CD or USB sinks.
If you use limp circumferences or USB butts on public computers corresponding your school computer lab, Kinko’s, or even digital photo printing store realize convinced you scan them for viruses. Public computers are notorious for not soul up to date and properly protected.
Be wary of email articles. Confab any email ardor as potentially dangerous. Stand break in impedimenta turn out federation you weren’t expecting. Also be careful of furniture accrue nation you know but weren’t expecting. Towering computer viruses plait themselves by telepathic transmission the glances keep from an rotten computer.
Use assignment email if possible. While HTML email is prettier and allows you more control over formatting it also can weigh computer viruses. If you use text found email the only way to master a virus is by gala opening an trimming.
Use downloaded freeware and shareware files or software with caution. Try to download them deny oneself popular reputable sources that scan the cracks before they are uploaded. To comprise arrogant you are safe scan the program before you install it on your computer.
Be wary of susceptibilities in IM or instant messaging software. Don’t accept bids come again mores you don’t know and draw out carry out a pair end up someone you don’t mob, they can easily redirect you to another website that will try to install a virus on your computer system..
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Written by mellow on December 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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A computer virus is a malicious computer program that, when executed by an unsuspecting human, performs tasks that primarily include replicating itself and in some cases deploying a payload.
A decade or so ago, viruses were pretty simple. They got into a system and infected a file or two. It was a basic as ordering coffee when coffee was easy to order. “One coffee pleaseblack.”
Today, the catalog of viruses you have to defend yourself against is frighteningly complex. In fact, it’s become as complex as, well, ordering coffee.
“Looks like you’ve been infected by a dropper that’s put a Trojan on your system, which deployed a multi-partite that opened a backdoor and also infected the master boot record.”
Sounds like an order at Starbucks, don’t you think?
These days a discussion about a virus can actually occur without using the word virus because sometimes viruses are worms or Trojan horses, which are virus-like nasties that act a little different than their infectious cousins.
Why are they called computer viruses? Well, because they have similar characteristics to biological viruses that infect humansin at least one way. The computer variety jumps from computer to computer much like a cold virus jumps from your kids to you and from you to your spouse.
Don’t let all this frighten you, though. It’s not that hard to figure out and defending your computer against viruses is pretty straightforward. Still, if the idea makes you queasy, skip ahead to the part of the chapter about how to easily protect yourself from viruses. But I hope you stick around because the more you know, the geekier you will be. Okay, not really. But understanding them makes them much less scary.
Viruses were one of the first real security threats people had to deal with when personal computers started appearing in homes a couple of decades ago. The first computer viruses were written in the 1980s; however, they really didn’t become a big threat until the late 1990s when everyone who owned a personal computer started connecting to the Internet.
Before then viruses spread via floppy disks or CDs. They would ride on the back of files stored on a disk or in the boot area of the floppy and replicate when the disk was inserted into the computer.
The Internet’s popularity has also become the chief reason that security on personal computers has become such a hot topic. A Net connection is the off-ramp from the Internet into your computer for all data. And guess what? For viruses it’s an express lane.
About the Author:
Alex Kubik is shareware and freeware fan, He tests various software articles ranging from spyware utilities to antivirus tools. Follow the link to get more information about antivirus tools.
Written by mellow on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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In information security, computer virus is a manmade program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. From behavior computer virus in a way is a similar biological virus which pervasions by inserting itself into living cells. Cell by cell and all organisms (computer) is ridden virus cells. Without computer viruses, there are separated two other types of malicious computer programs – viruses.
Trojan Horses
As already from this virus type name we can imagine, Trojan horses are programs that pretend to be legitimate software, but actually carry out hidden, harmful functions. Trojans can’t replicate themselves that mean, they can’t expand so fast as other virus types. But often they work together with viruses.
Worms
Worms are similar to viruses, but do not need a carrier program or document. Worms simply create exact copies of themselves and use communications between computers, for example e-mail, to spread.
There are different types of computer viruses with different influence. Some viruses are fairly harmless or only annoying, but there are viruses that can create inconceivable damages.
Some things what virus can do with computer:
*Slow down e-mail – generating huge e-mail traffic and slowing down servers,
*Steal confidential data – for example, recording user’s keystrokes,
*Use your computer to attack websites,
*Let other user hijack your computer – allowing to connect to your computer and use it for their own purpose,
*Corrupt data – making changes in some documents,
*Delete data – all or only some part data on your hard disk drive,
*Play pranks,
*Damage credibility – forwarding itself from your computer to your friends or even business partners,
*Cause embarrassment – for example, replacing one word in all documents with other.
Every year computer viruses activity brings to company several million dollars damages. Year for year this number of damage increase! Because it is so important that every people get information security awareness training!
About the Author
http://www.infosecuritylab.com
Written by mellow on December 12th, 2006 with no comments.
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Most people are scared of computer viruses, but few actually know what they are. Some people even believe that computer viruses can be transferred between computers just by putting them near each other, or by using a CD-ROM that was once inside an infected computer (both things are impossible). You’re right to be scared of viruses, but you can protect yourself against them a lot better once you know what you’re up against.
To put it simply, a virus is any piece of software that makes its way onto your machine in secret, without you wanting it there, and then attempts to transmit itself to other machines. Contrary to popular belief, viruses aren’t necessarily destructive or even annoying – some do little more than pop up messages, and some do nothing at all.
Today, there are many different ways for viruses to spread. You can get them from emails, if you open an executable attachment (they will then re-send themselves to your entire address book). You can get them from Microsoft Office documents, if you let a rogue macro run. You can get them from the web, if you follow a link from someone’s IM (and then the viruses will IM itself to all your friends). You can even get them over the Internet without doing anything at all if you don’t let Windows update itself regularly, thanks to the many security holes found every month.
You should realise, however, that viruses don’t just come out of nowhere – they are not accidental like bugs or crashes. For a virus to exist, someone somewhere has to have sat and actively created and developed it, just like they would with any other program. Sometimes virus creators are caught and arrested, but the nature of the Internet makes them difficult to find.
About the Author
John Gibb is the owner of Virus protection resources , For more information on virus protection check out http://www.virus-protection-resource-and-guidance.info
Written by mellow on December 9th, 2006 with no comments.
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Fighting viruses and getting rid of them is big business right now. The first step is knowing just what the enemy is.
THE ENEMY – Hackers and Crackers
Computer geeks say that there is a difference between hackers and crackers. Crackers do damage to systems they break into while hackers just want to see how everything works. We’ll use the more common term of hacker. Originally the term hacker was someone who made furniture with the use of an axe.
A virus is “malware” for your computer. This is a term that covers all kinds of software that is malicious. The most common types of malware are Trojans, worms, and viruses.
VIRUSES
Viruses are often hidden inside of other programs, for example installation programs that arrive to you through email attachments. When you run this host program the virus is executed. When the virus is in your computer memory it will be able to do a lot of damage such as infecting other computer programs.
Once the infection phase of the virus is complete the next stage begins: the destructive phase. Viruses will wait for a certain trigger, such as a date or the number of times that the virus has been copied, before the payload is delivered. The payload can be as simple as messages all the way to the deletion of files to the destruction of your operating system.
When viruses were first created they were often distributed on a floppy disk. As the Internet has grown, email and file downloads are the best way for viruses to be passed. Email can have attachments that can contain any type of computer file. Executable files can be loaded with viruses and therefore you shouldn’t run them unless you’re sure that they are virus free.
WORMS
Worms are much like viruses because they are self-copying. They can reproduce across multiple networks without human aid, such as through the sending of emails. Worms, however, don’t need an executable program in order to be passed along.
A worm can affect a computer network more than it can infect computers that are on that network. Because they self-copy they can overload the resources on a network. This can cause slow downs in the speed of data transfers by using a large amount of bandwidth…more bandwidth than is needed for normal network traffic. Any network that routes traffic on the Internet is simply known as software and hardware that is specialized. Both software and hardware can be bothered by malware.
A worm can be created to carry payloads by using an installation program through the backdoor. A backdoor is an access point into the computer that is hidden. The worm uses the backdoor and ignores the usual procedure for login. Backdoors are often used by spammers so that they can send junk email.
TROJAN HORSES
A Trojan horse is another kind of malware. A Trojan horse is a computer program that acts as though it will do one thing when it will actually do something different. This term comes from the story of Troy, a city which was deceived by the Greeks to get into the inner city undetected. A Trojan horse can’t replicate itself the way viruses and worms can.
A Trojan horse can be hidden in software that is otherwise useful. When a Trojan horse starts it can do such things as corrupt files, install backdoors, erase data, and keep track of keystrokes. This information will enable hackers to steal your personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers.
COMBATING MALWARE
In this series we will talk about what you can do to fight malware. Until then it’s important to just be passive and not expect that your computer problems will be taken care of by someone else. Combating viruses needs the involvement of users, webmasters, and software vendors.
About the Author
Paul Wilcox writes about internet privacy and security issues for the Internet Security Squad website. Get more helpful information and advice at http://www.internetsecuritysquad.com
Written by mellow on December 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Freedom?s not just another word for nothing left to lose. Strong security ensures your ability to conduct your business unhampered. Mac OS X delivers the highest level of security through the adoption of industry standards, open software development and wise architectural decisions. Combined, this intelligent design prevents the swarms of viruses and spy ware that plague PCs these days.
Knowing security is important. Most people are blinded by the word ’security + Mac’ your current security program probably is not secure the way it should be for your office, school, internet, or even home. I hope you learn more from this article then you have ever known about Macintosh security.
The time between the disclosure of vulnerability and the release of an associated exploit was just six days. Half (59 per cent) of vulnerabilities were associated with web application technologies.
Along with computer viruses and vulnerabilities, spam remains a leading security concern. Spam accounted for 61 per cent of all email traffic in the first half of 2005, according to Symantec, with over half (51 per cent) of all junk mail received worldwide originated in the US.
MacScan 2.2 spy ware protection for Mac OS X has been released and is available for download as a free upgrade. This version improves scanning of spy ware, definition updates, improved stability and support for 10.2.
Apple Security Update 2006-004 has been released. To update Mac OS X go to the System Update Controls in the System Preferences and check for updates. Update includes fixes for AFP Server, Bluetooth, Bom, and DHCP; fetch mail, gun zip, Image RAW, ImageIO, Launch Services, OpenSSH, telnet, Web Kit, and App Kit.
Mac OS X Virus Alert – Sophos Anti Virus has found the first ‘real virus’ for Mac OS X known as OSX/Leap-A or OSX/Oomph-A. The OSX/Leap worm or Trojan is spread via instant messenger forwarding itself as a file named ‘latestpics.tgz’. When launched the worm attempts to spread via iChat sending itself to the users buddy list. The application will also try to infect the recently used applications.
Apple QuickTime/iTunes QuickTime.QTS Heap Overflow was addressed by Apple, this issue could allow for malicious code to be executed when processing a malformed .MOV (movie) file. Apple has released updated QuickTime and iTunes. Advisory with example code.
MacScan 2.0 for Mac OS X has been released. MacScan will find, isolate, and remove spy ware, keystroke loggers, and Trojan horses as well as detect whether remote administration applications have been installed on a computer. By scanning files received as e-mail attachments or downloaded from the web, MacScan can proactively protect computers from inadvertently accepting new spy ware. Mac Scan?s spy ware definitions are constantly being updated, letting users keep pace with the hackers.
Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server contain a security hole in Directory Services which allows for escalation of privileges and denial of service attack which is fixed with the 10.2.5 update. Directory Services is part of the operating systems information services subsystem, and is launched at being setuid as root by default.
Mac OS X systems with ‘allow remote login’ enabled in the sharing pane of the system preferences should be disabled until a new release of OpenSSH has been made available from Apple in the security updates. View advisory now a new version of the software is out but not available through the Apple Software Updates.
Protect the info on your Mac from prying eyes with File Vault, which uses the latest government security standard, AES-128 encryption, to safeguard your hard work. It encrypts and decrypts on the fly, so you don?t even know its happening. File Vault protects all the info in your home folder from prying eyes, so your trade secrets stay secret, your holiday shopping lists are kept safe and your personal finance records remain secure.
Welcome to http://www.dvwarehouse.com, a site devoted to Apple Macintosh security and Mac OS X Security! Use the Side Bar to navigate the site, check this page frequently for updates and new security products for the Mac OS!
This page provides links to background information, security vendors, comparative and individual reviews of personal firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, privacy and suites of software as well as hardware firewalls and anti-theft services to help you protect your Macintosh desktop or laptop computer.
They will constantly update it with the most current programs, news and downloads. If you are a programmer for the Mac, please contact us, we are looking to make a program. Email macmart.com for more information.
Author: Nivea David For Listing visit http://www.dvwarehouse.com (Best Online Computer Store).Just login to http://www.Macmart.com for all kinds of Used Mac Part . The marketplace for purchasing quality used Macs. http://www.sellamac.com The easiest & fastest way to sell your used Macs .
Written by mellow on December 4th, 2006 with no comments.
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Although numerous in their design, computer viruses can basically be broken down into two categories. These include a virus that can either be destructive or simply annoying. In order to combat both, software developers have created anti-virus software that is designed to detect and remove certain types of computer viruses, along with worms, spyware, adware and identity theft.
With modern technology having turned toward computers and the internet, computer viruses are more problematic than ever. While anti-virus software is important, the best approach to fighting against a computer virus is knowing how to avoid one. Here are a few tips:
$Never download an e-mail file from anyone that you do not know. Whether it be a document, photo or other program, simply close the e-mail without downloading it?s contents.
$When visiting websites, carefully select reputable companies when downloading files. This may include e-books, freeware, software, photos and other programs. If you are not familiar with the company or the website, there is no way to know what you will be accessing and how damaging it may be to your computer system.
$If you choose to download either an e-mail or internet file, use your anti-virus software to check the file prior to opening it on your computer.
$Always keep your anti-virus software updated with the latest information and upgrades from the manufacturer. When it is time to replace your software because it is outdated, don?t wait. New computer viruses are created often and no system is truly safe without some type of updated detection software.
As mentioned earlier, a computer virus can be either damaging to your computer system or may be nothing more than an annoyance. An example of a destructive virus would be one that destroys your hard drive files, prevents your computer from continuing to operate or may cause you to have to re-install the computer?s configuration using the Restore CD that accompanied your purchase. An annoying virus may cause your computer to operate slower than usual or may prevent certain files from working properly.
In some cases, software manufacturers create programs that have ?bugs? within the program. This is often called a virus, but should not be considered in the same manner as a typical computer virus. The reason is because a software manufacturer does not create these ?bugs? to intentionally hinder their customers and will generally work to replace the faulty program. In addition, a software glitch will not prevent your entire computer from operating or delete all of your files from the hard drive.
Common sense, along with an anti-virus program, will go a long way in both detecting and avoiding a computer virus. Without these important elements, your entire computer system and the information on it are at risk of infection.
About the Author:
The author is a regular contributor to Adware Cop where more information about adware and viruses is available.
Written by mellow on December 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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How safe is your computer? Could you be in danger of getting a virus on your system? Just how real is the danger? What steps should you take if any?
While visiting with a one of my students, I became aware that her anti-virus software was over seventeen months old and had never been updated. Upon informing her that she should update her anti-virus software regularly, she was totally surprised. Furthermore she had no concept how essential this was to ensure her system’s safety. Therefore I thought it wise to write about some of the precautions you should take to avoid becoming infected with a computer virus.
While there are many ‘virus’ hoaxes, and please do not pass any of these hoaxes on as these may actually contain viruses, computer viruses do pose a very real danger. Therefore I’ve listed a few preventative measures that you should take to ensure computer safety.
1. Do install an anti-virus software program and update it often as there are new viruses discovered everyday. I update my anti-virus database daily. At least weekly should be a goal. If you are not updating perpetually, it is like having an insurance policy and never paying the premiums. In no time at all it would be worthless.
2. Be wary of email from strangers. Never open an email with an attachment from a source that is unknown or suspicious. Virus containing emails can be very persuasive in the subject line. Do not let your curiosity be aroused.
I prefer an anti-virus program that has the ability to check all email sent and received. If you update it often, this should keep you safe, although nothing is 100% secure. There are good programs that offer a free version for personal use. These programs generally allow continual updates. Some may require that you register again at the end of year, but the software and updates will still be free.
Two such programs are:
AVG anti-virus, Free edition http://grisoft.com
Free avast! 4 Home Edition http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
For more options and reviews on programs you can do a search on google for free anti-virus.
3. Do exercise caution when downloading files from the Internet. Be sure to download from well known and reputable sources. Ascertain that your anti-virus software is set to scan files while you are downloading. I have that feature enabled in my anti-virus program and it scans all files when I am in the process of downloading, and it has on occasion prevented me from downloading a file that was infected or posed a potential danger. These programs work so take advantage of the security your anti-virus will provide by using all of the safety features.
4. New viruses creep upon a daily basis. It is important to back up your important files regularly. CD’s and DVD’s hold a large amount of information. Take advantage of this and store your valuable information and computer programs on these removable disks. In the event that a virus should ever invade your system and your files become corrupted you will be able to replace them with your backup copies.
5. Lastly apply the little rule, ‘When in doubt do without’. If you are uncertain, whether it is with an unknown source in your email or a web site that offers a download, then best not to take a chance. No email message or free software is worth the damage to your computer files and the time and expense of repairing your PC. Do not be fooled, computer viruses do affect everyone.
The Internet offers us an array of software, services, entertainment and education that is beneficial. There is no reason to fear the web, it can be safe and secure. Yet it would be unrealistic to assume that there is no danger of computer viruses. There are unscrupulous persons who desire to do you harm. By observing these few guidelines you can minimize any threat of a virus attacking your computer.——————————————————- Doran Roggio teaches others computer safety and maintenance. At http://doranunlimited.com she provides lessons, PC tips, freeware, mp3s, cool sites, ebooks biz info, hosting, all to improve your PC and Internet experience.
About the Author
Doran, writer and entrepreneur provides lessons, resouces, tips, freeware, biz info, ebooks, mp3s, and more to improve your PC and Internet experience. http://doranunlimited.com
Written by mellow on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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As you are aware, vandals are at work creating new computer viruses all the time. We mostly hear about the big, awful, scary viruses on the news and we hurry to take the appropriate action, but the large majority of infections are quiet and anonymous. We should give these little termites no less attention as often time they are doing much damage before they are even detected. Their effects run from mostly benign to potentially fatal to their unwilling and unwitting hosts. There are two different approaches to dealing with them: Prevention and Cure.
Preventing virus infection begins with guarding the portals of contact. Do not open suspicious e-mails or attachments without scanning them first. Most anti-virus programs have a right-click option to scan a selected file for viruses, which makes scanning easy. When you download software, eBooks or other items, always save to a file, then scan the file before opening. If you bring in data or software by floppy disk, CD or other portable media, the same rule applies; always scan it first!
Getting a good firewall can help in keeping viruses at bay, but there are too many ways to hide them in regular data or software transfers for a firewall to catch them all. A firewall can help, but don’t count on that alone. Sooner or later, viruses are going to get through your defenses somehow, and you will need to turn to cures.
When and if that day comes, you could lose most of your files before you know that there is a problem! So prepare well in advance by backing up your files for easy recovery. Set up your computer with a small hard drive (4-10giga) for your C: drive and a much larger hard drive for all your data. Use your C: drive for programs only. Keep copies of your software purchase receipts, registration and activation codes and setup info in a file on your data drive. You can always download them again, if you can give the seller your purchase info to show that you already bought. Almost all virus infections will be in the program section of the C: drive, so scan it daily. This won’t take much time since you have arranged for it to be relatively small. Then scan your (larger)data drive once or twice a month.
Back up your data files frequently. If you cannot backup everything, at least backup the crucial information that would be difficult or impossible to replace. CD and DVD burners are a good way to do this backup, as are removable hard driv es. You require a good anti-virus programs to go after the viruses and either quarantine or (preferably) destroy them. There are many anti-virus solutions being touted and hyped out there. Some are good, most are not. Here is how to find the good ones:
1. Look for programs that offer both active and passive protection. Active protection means that part of the program remains memory-resident, actively watching for potential incoming viruses. When they detect a virus they can sound an alarm and give you a series of options for dealing with it. Passive or on-demand protection will let you ask for a scan of specified areas when you want it, but it waits for you to ask.
2. Select your anti-virus software based on the recommendations of independent testing agencies. Checkmark (by http://westcoastlabs.org), http://AV-test.org and PC World magazine are among the most respected independent testers of anti-virus software. For ratings of anti-trojan software, check with Anti-trojan – Forum. Use more than one anti-virus and anti-trojan program. Very few detect all problems, but what one program misses, another may seek and destroy.
3. Keep your anti-virus programs up to date. There is a running battle going on between virus writer-disseminators and virus catch-and-destroy experts. New viruses are found; new anti-virus program patches to find and destroy them are usually ready within hours or days. Until your software is updated, you are still vulnerable to the new viruses.
Consider using anti-virus software on your personal computer, consider using an Internet Service Provider or e-mail service that includes server-side anti-virus and spam e-mail filtering as a third layer of protection.
In summary, the urgency was best said by Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab Virus Research, in a November 23, 2005 article posted in Security News, said, “The number of new viruses and Trojans is now increasing every day by a few hundred. (Our) virus lab receives between 200 and 300 new samples a day.” That is not a misprint. He said 200-300 per day so we must be sure to keep ourselves aware and make the necessary changes in a timely manner to stay ahead of these viruses. Be assured, it is an ongoing battle!
So, get good software, run it often and update it often.. stay alert to new developments! The struggle between new viruses and better anti-virus software is ongoing, and developing steadily.
About the Author:
Sintilia Miecevole at http://www.fmlasoftware.com provides information or resources from software, software downloads, software services and computers to virus software and more. Be sure to visit http://www.fmlasoftware.com for further information.
Written by mellow on November 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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Computer security is a vitally important issue in today’s society, a lot of the most critical aspects of our lives require computers, and keeping those computers secure is critical. The popularity of the Internet and the amount of time we spend making use of it has made it very simple to spread computer viruses.
Computer viruses have become such a problem that they are now frequently mentioned in both the newspapers television news bulletins as well as in the online media. It is absolutely critical that you take steps to protect yourself against viruses, and you must be really vigilant if you spend a lot of time online.
Virus can be transmitted through e-mail, or a file you download even if you do not install it, but they can also be present in the files on a floppy disk especially if it is being passed from friend to friend. Lots of computers get infected every day, and if you do not take precautions yours may be next, you may lose all of your data on your machine. Once gone, it will be irretrievable unless of course you had the good sense to take a regular back up!
A computer virus is a small program that has the ability to duplicate itself, just like a real virus hence the name, also just like a biological virus it must have a host to exist. The virus payload, the end product of the computer virus, can be something harmless it can be as simple as displaying a message, or something very serious it could fully reformat your hard drive. Recent computer virus attacks have resulted in major disruption to both home computers and the networks of governments and multi national companies.
The advance of the Internet has been the most essential issue in the increase of computer viruses. Originally viruses were spread when people swapped disks with their friends, by its very nature this tended to restrict the spread of the computer virus but today most people do not tend to use external media like disks to store data in the same way, This has resulted, most viruses being spread via the use of e-mail and file sharing on the Internet. All that is required is for you to open an e-mail attachment or download a dangerous program and this can give your computer a virus. There are by now, about fifty thousand viruses in existence, but there are several hundred new threats produced each month.
There are a number of motives that encourage people to write computer viruses. The earliest virus programs were by and large written as pranks or experiments. However as some programmers began to learn their way about systems and the Internet, they wrote viruses just to see what they can do with them. For example, a programmer might write a computer virus code just to see how far it would spread. Unfortunately it did not stop there, other more malicious individuals, have far more hostile intentions and they took great delight writing computer viruses to harm websites or damage people’s computers.
An additional reason a computer virus gets produced is to blackmail large corporations with the threat of setting off a loss of data on their systems. There have been lots of viruses written for revenge. Employees who are about to lose their jobs can sometimes leave viruses behind on the company system to do damage to their former employer’s ability to do business.
Also lots of viruses are written for profit. The computer viruses may be used to send e-mail spam (so the original sender is disguised), causing your computer to serve as a host to illegal data, or engage in other illegal activities. Also, viruses can be used to spy on users, display pop-ups while the user is not on the internet, and acquire user data like bank accounts or credit card numbers.
Viruses tend to fall into two major types, Worms or Trojan horses, but just to complicate things Trojan horses, can be a type of worm.
A Computer Worm is a self replicating program, the first worm to gain wide attention was the Morris Worm this infected a large number of computers and earned its writer 400 hours of community service and over $10000 in fines!
Trojan horses as the name implies are hidden viruses. This helps the program to get installed in the first place. They then quietly run in the background, while disseminating its malicious code. This code can do any amount of things. It can begin right away or it may simply install a program that won’t start for sometime. Once it does start, it can delete all of the files on the computer or it can infect the computer and try to infect other computers on the network.
There are a number of ways viruses are delivered, and as a Trojan horse is the most common. It generally comes with other pieces of software that a user might find interesting. This software is usually shared through a file-sharing network or downloadable off of the Internet. Once the user installs the software, the virus also gets installed.
It is vital that you cover yourself against viruses, this can done very simply by installing a good anti-virus program and keeping it up to date. There are both free and expensive software applications around that can be set to self-update to protect from viruses.
You can also help defend yourself by being cautious where you download files from; only use a reputable well-known source. You should also not to open any e-mail attachments unless you know the sender. Making these safety precautions will help to protect you from computer viruses.
About the Author:
For further vital information and news about Computer Viruses pay a visit to http://www.antiviruseye.com You may reproduce this article provided you maintain an active link back to http://www.antiviruseye.com
Written by mellow on November 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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