Viruses - Part One: Precautions to take to avoid getting hit by viruses First of all, let’s see just who writes these computer viruses. It used to be that a lot of people that wrote viruses were known as “script-kiddies” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddies). Generally, computer viruses can be written by anyone. This ranges from programmers to companies that are based in countries that have lax rules about malware to organized crime that are harvesting data that can be used for identity theft. Learning what not to do is as important as learning what to do. Here are a few pointers on what not to do: • Don’t open e-mail attachments you’re not expecting, especially if they’re from someone you don’t know • Be cautious of e-mail attachments from people you do know if you’re not expecting any. If you do receive some, and your anti-virus program doesn’t scan them, save them to your desktop and scan them manually before you open them up; • Don’t use peer-to-peer (P2P) software such as Limewire, Kazaa, Bearshare, etc. for downloading music, or any other files. This is a prime area for getting files that have viruses or other malware • Don’t turn off your anti-virus program unless absolutely necessary. This will leave you exposed and vulnerable; • Don’t copy files from floppy disks, CDs or DVDs without scanning them first; • Don’t disable your firewall, whether it’s the built-in firewall from Windows or a third-party firewall; • Don’t accept unsolicited files from people you don’t know when using chat lines such as MSN Messenger, AOL, Skype, etc. If you’ve been attacked by a virus; here are a few symptoms of what may happen to your computer; • Your computer constantly crashes or restarts; • Your computer becomes slow or shows erratic performance; • An active Internet connection when you’re not using your computer; • Your Internet home page has changed to something else; • You get pop-ups telling you that you’ve been infected and if you allow it to, it will clean your computer for you; • E-mail in your sent folder that you did not send; • Missing or corrupt data or system files; • Your computer may not start or shows error messages on startup. If you believe that you have been hit by a virus, disconnect from the Internet or network as soon as possible, then perform a full scan with your anti-virus program. Make sure that it is up to date first. If your anti-virus program doesn’t remove the infection, you may have to run it in safe mode. Once your scan has removed the infections, rescan until your antivirus program no longer shows any sign of infection. The following points will help to keep you as secure as possible: • Install Windows Security Updates and Service Packs: Virus writers exploit software bugs and holes in programs. Security updates will help to fix those issues. • Ensure that you have a good antivirus program installed on your computer: There are numerous antivirus programs that are available. Most have free trial periods that you can use to test out the program to see if you like it prior to purchasing it. Remember that the trial programs do end and that you should purchase the full program if you find a program that you like. • Update virus signatures: New viruses and variations are being written all the time. If you don’t update your virus signatures, you are not going to be protected against new threats. • Once your antivirus program has been installed and updated, perform a complete system scan to ensure that your computer is clean of infections. • Install a good malware protection program on your computer: While antivirus programs do a good job protecting you against viruses, some of them don’t work as well against spyware and adware programs. There are numerous programs on the market that work very well. To paraphrase; an ounce of prevention is worth the cost of a computer repair.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:31:24 +0000
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