Anyone that has ever owned a computer has either heard about or experienced a computer virus. Livescience.com recently reported that “before the month is even done, April has set a record for virus emails.”
Gone are the days when new computer users were told about the rarity of viruses and that there was no need to worry. Countless news reports have since validated the worry over computer viruses, but what exactly is a virus?
Basically a computer virus is a software program designed to destroy or steal data. These viruses are most often sent through email attachments, software downloads, and some types of advanced web scripting. Different viruses cause different types of damage to your computer; Trojan horses destroy data, bombs explode through your system, and worms duplicate themselves, destroying or corrupting data as they go. These viruses can be combined into even more deadly forms but they can usually be identified by their location on your computer.
Boot Sector Virus – Most early forms of virus were boot sector because it required a removable device such as a floppy disk or CD to reach your machine. These viruses activate when you reboot your system and will infect any other floppies inserted afterwards. They have the potential to take up memory or freeze your system.
File Virus – This is a virus that infects other files on your system. Otherwise known as the ‘classic’ form of virus, it is also the most common and easiest to distribute. Some forms of file virus are able to hide themselves by changing aspects of their code with each infection.
Multipart Virus – This file infects both the boot sector and files. These types of viruses were fairly common when most computers operated on a DOS system but declined when integrated operating systems became the norm.
Who created the first virus and why remains a mystery; however, one virus programmer was willing to explain the motivation behind his destruction. According to this programmer, a popular online service (which will remain unnamed) failed to provide quality protection for children against what he considered to be online smut. To retaliate, he created and distributed a virus to as many file libraries of this service as he could find. His intention: to disable the computers of the people using this service, preventing them from connecting to the internet for days at a time, thus causing the service to lose revenue and customers.
Did it work? Somewhat. A small percentage of users were affected but the company in question is still alive and well, doing business today. Despite the programmers worthy intentions to save children from things best left unseen, his efforts were futile. There are probably many well intentioned motives for creating and distributing a virus, none of which take into account the damage done to an innocent bystander through a virus programmers ‘good intentions’.
What can be done if you have a virus? To protect from getting or cleaning out an existing virus, an antivirus utility is needed. There are many of these available today but maybe there is another way. Education and Communication are the key. Perhaps educating the people creating the viruses about the damage done to innocent people and providing a way to communicate their dissatisfaction effectively will reduce the news stories and protect investments.
Last year my computer was one of the first to get hit by a new Trojan virus. We visited the wrong website or downloaded something that had the Trojan virus embedded into it. We almost lost our computer and everything in it. Thank goodness we back up our computer every night. The Trojan virus was so new that our computer anti-virus security did not know how to fight it. We actually had to contact the people who produced our anti-virus security software and provided us with daily updates. We gave them access and control of our computer. They managed to lock down the virus, stopping it from affecting out computer any further.
They immediately set about sending out an update that would simply block this virus from infecting other computers using their anti-virus security. They let us know that our computer would be infected for a bit, but that it was contained and would not be able to do any more damage. Once they had found a way to kill the virus they would send us an update and that would clean our system.
The Trojan we got hit with was designed to damage our computer. It was programmed to destroy data. There are other types of Trojans. Some are programmed to give a third party remote access to your computer. This is considered a remote administration Trojan. This can be to see your information or just to mess around with it. It is often used to steal passwords or change the victim’s registry. As well as upload, download, execute files and more. Scary thought is that they can actually turn on a web cam and see what you are doing anytime.
A downloader/dropper is one that whole purpose is to download a different program onto your computer.
Usually a remote administration Trojan program is what they download to your computer. A server Trojan creates a file server on the victim’s computer. This lets the hacker upload or download files. A server Trojan is often used to upload a remote administration Trojan, giving control of your computer to the hacker. Another type of Trojan used to do this is one designed to disable security software. It lets the hacker get in past your security, usually with the intent to download a remote administration program.
There is one unusual type of Trojan going around. The purpose is not to destroy your data or to get control of your computer to get your information. No it is about getting control of your and many other computers so that at a specific time they all attach a third parties computer. This was done to yahoo.com not that long ago.
If you’ve never been the victim of a computer virus, you may think that all of the uproar over these nasty little programs is making much ado out of nothing. You may even be thinking that computer security experts and anti-virus companies are using scare tactics to sell anti-virus software. After all, the bigger the problem, the more software people buy. Today, the anti-virus business is worth several billion dollars and it shows no sign of slowing down.
So, with all of this money at risk, you are certainly justified in wondering whether computer viruses really are as big a problem as the industry says they are.
Unfortunately, the answer is that they absolutely are. If you get a virus, you could actually lose your money, your identity and your computer’s hard drive. With new viruses being developed constantly, the problem continues to grow. While many viruses are more annoying than destructive, even a “harmless” virus can use up valuable resources. The worst viruses can spread worldwide in a few days and wreak unbelievable havoc. The damage from one infamous virus can mean billions of dollars in lost business opportunities and damaged equipment.
With all of this bad news, is there any good news for computer users? Take this quick risk quiz:
1. Does your computer have antivirus software installed on it?
If you can say yes, you are much less a risk than people that don’t have antivirus software. If you say no, than it is only a matter of time until you find out about viruses personally.
2. Does your computer have a firewall installed on it?
If your response is yes again, you can relax a bit. You’re doing all you can do software wise to keep your computer safe from a deadly virus. If you say no again, you are leaving your computer wide open for an attack.
Despite all of the media attention paid to antivirus software, people still have the “It can’t happen to me.” mentality. They laugh off warnings to protect their computers and say that they are working just fine. They think that because they never actually initiate a file download or send and receive files with friends, they are safe. A few months go by and suddenly they can’t get their computers to boot up forever and then when they finally do start, they plod along at a snail’s pace.
To make things worse, quite a few of these computer users who leave their computers unprotected are actually taking classes for computer related careers. They are completely at sea when they have to try to repair the damage caused by a virus filled computer. Perhaps a basic class on computer care and repair is in order!
You are probably wondering how viruses develop anyway. Hackers are the people creating these nasty bugs, right? Actually, while some hackers may decide to create computer viruses, most of them spend all of their waking hours attempting to break in to the most secure and top secret systems they can find. People who write viruses are people with an ax to grind. They want to send a wake up message or show people that they are superior to them. Today, many people are concerned that computer viruses could be used as a terrorist weapon.
If you do get a computer virus, will you lose everything on your hard drive? It actually is rare for this type of virus to spread very fast or far. Annoying viruses that stop you from starting your computer or using windows or those that mail spoof emails to your entire email address book are much more common. The hard drive is usually recoverable when the computer has one of these viruses.
What about your financial and personal information? Are viruses really likely to swipe them from the computer. Absolutely. This is a common reason that viruses are created and spread.
Is there any way to keep your computer virus free? While no anti-virus software is foolproof, installing one of these programs can provide some protection. While there are anti-virus software programs that provide better protection, any of them will help somewhat. Even free anti-virus programs are actually able to ward off at least some viruses.
After reading this information on viruses and anti-virus software, you have probably resolved to get protection for your computer right away. If so, you won’t be sorry. Dealing with viruses after you are infected is frustrating and time consuming. It is so much easier to keep a disaster from happening instead of trying to reconstruct a ton of missing data and worry about identity or financial thefts after the fact.
News about computer viruses has been popping everywhere, from your computer screen to the nightly news. As hackers become more sophisticated, computer users need to know how to protect themselves from the latest onslaught of viruses. Use these tips to keep your computer virus-free.
Virus Prevention Tips:
1. Do not open e-mail attachments from strangers. If you do not recognize the e-mail address or subject line, delete the e-mail. Also check the file extension of attachments. Beware of suspicious extensions, such as .pif and .scr.
2. Only open e-mail attachments if you know what they are, even if they come from a reputable source. Some viruses attack address books, sending themselves out to every e-mail address they find. It’s better to check with the person who sent the e-mail, rather than opening it blindly.
3. Be careful when downloading files from the Internet. Make sure that the download source is legitimate and reputable. Most sites run virus checks on software before opening for you. For extra safety, download the file to a floppy disk and then check it with your own anti-virus software before installing it your hard drive.
4. Update your anti-virus software on a regular basis. Most software has an area where you can download the latest virus updates.
5. Back-up important files to a portable storage unit. This could be a CD, DVD, zip disk, floppy disk or host of other media storage devices. This way, if your computer is harmed by a virus, your important files can still be safely reloaded.