Trouble with Viruses
By Duncan Drury
These days it feels not a month goes by without an outbreak of
a new "worst ever" computer virus. Last month is was Sasser, the month before
Bagel, both of which spread around the world in a matter of hours.
A computer virus is a programme that is loaded onto your computer without your
knowledge and runs against your wishes.
Viruses can wreak havoc on an unprotected computer deleting files, breaking
software, sending out embarrassing emails to your friends and customers and
hogging your internet connection in order to attack prominent web sites.
Worse than that, a virus called Doomjuice plants evidence on your computer that
if found by detectives could suggest you were involved in the development of the
recent MyDoom virus. It doesn't do this via email, but by accessing a back door
MyDoom opened on infected computers.
For a computer to become infected virus code must be run on it. Code can get
onto the computer in a number of ways – in an email attachment, by downloading
an infected programme, or copying a document from a floppy disk. Just having the
code does not mean your computer is infected. It must first be run.
How does this happen? The virus code may be hidden inside a programme you want
to run – the virus gets run with it. Many viruses sent by email will trick you
into opening an attachment such as the infamous ILOVEYOU email with attached
"love letter." Some viruses have found ways to automatically run attachments in
Outlook Express and Outlook. Word and Excel documents have a feature known as
macros, which can be used to write viruses which run when the document is
opened.
So you want to avoid viruses? What can you do? One of my friends successfully
kept virus free for many years by keeping his computer a "virgin." He never
connected it to the internet, and never shared floppy disks between his and
other peoples' computers. In this day and age where computers are synonymous
with communication this simply is not an option. With so many ways for a virus
to run it is hard to protect yourself just through being careful. The only
solution seems to be anti-virus software.
In Tanzania, chances are when you bought your computer it came with a copy of
Norton Anti-Virus. This makes many of us feel safe. However, the copies of
Norton that are bundled with new PCs tend only to have free updates for three to
six months. After that you are susceptible to any new viruses that emerge. You
have little choice but to subscribe to the updates (if you have a credit card)
or buy another boxed copy of Norton. You don't have many choices, and both of
them are Norton.
While Norton may be a good product, the credit-rich world has a huge choice when
it comes to anti-virus software, with most providers making their products
available for instant download. A quick check on the anti-virus testing web
sites www.check-mark.com and www.virusbtn.com shows that there are a great many
products which will protect you against all but the most very recent viruses.
Since they all do what you really want more or less equally well, the choice can
be made on price and ease of use.
Up until recently the only anti-virus product that matched the average
Tanzanian's spending ability was Grisoft's AVG. AVG is a free download, and
updates are also free. It is not as user friendly as more expensive software,
but is as effective in protecting you from viruses. Recently Microsoft teamed up
with Computer Associates to provide a year's free protection using eTrust EZ
Armor. This is a slicker product than AVG, with daily updates and a host of
features such as pop-up ad blockers and a firewall.
Important: When installing new anti-virus programme be sure to uninstall any
previous ones. Running two anti-virus programmes at the same time can crash your
computer! Norton is notoriously difficult to remove completely. Search on Google
for "remove Norton" to get advice on how to do this properly.
Most viruses take advantage of security holes in Microsoft products. As a result
Microsoft regularly issue fixes for these holes. You can download any fixes you
need from windowsupdate.microsoft.com. You should do this at least once a month
if your computer is connected to the internet! Microsoft also has information on
securing your computer against viruses and other threats at
www.microsoft.com/security.
By keeping Windows and your anti-virus software up to date you should be
protected against most viruses.
Interesting sites
www.vmyths.com – all
about virus myths and hoaxes
www.cert.org/homeusers –
advice on computer security for home and small business users
www.check-mark.com – checks that
anti-virus software works
www.grisoft.com – Get AVG here
www.my-etrust.com/microsoft
- free EZ Armor
|
