Taking precautions against viruses
By Maria O'Daniel
23rd May 2002 (Computimes) THERE is a constant stream of news items describing how much revenue the latest computer virus outbreak has cost corporations. Books and films tell horror stories of viruses crippling anything from a company to a nuclear submarine. We've got the message: computer viruses are scary. So how come many of us still have our home computers infected? If you are new to computers and want to protect your data, you'll be happy to know it only takes a few simple precautions to protect yourself. Read on and learn how. The nitty gritty of viruses. To fight viruses, you have to understand the battleground. Virus writers look for a security flaw in popular software (a big target being Microsoft Outlook) so that as many people as possible will be affected, and write a program that will exploit this weakness. Although most computer viruses just hide themselves inside programmes or documents and hope not to get caught, others (known as Trojan horses) wear a party disguise, pretending to be a game or movie clip. Trojan horses hope you will let them in without checking to see what they really are. Computer viruses can do many different things from frying your hard disk to sending a silly message to your screen each time you switch on your computer. Most viruses written today infect your computer and then use your resources to spread themselves all over the world. Remember the SirCam worm? It comes in an electronic mail (e-mail) attachment apparently sent by a friend. If you open the attachment, the worm sneaks into your computer, takes a file from the "My Documents" folder, infects it, and sends it on to the list of contacts in your Microsoft Outlook address book. It then scouts your computer temporary cache collecting e-mail addresses from Web pages temporarily stored there and e-mails them too. In the past, computer viruses could only move from personal computer to PC via e-mail attachments you chose to send and by the exchange of floppy disks. Good advice in those happy days was "don't open any new file you have acquired without scanning it for viruses first". That is no longer true. Just previewing a file or looking at a Web site can now leave your computer open to an infestation of computer viruses, unless - and this is the important part - you have properly configured and updated software installed. Using software. Virus writers are continually battling other security experts. Each time a new virus is released, or a security flaw spotted in software, a solution is made available. Sometimes problems are spotted and solutions are made available before virus writers get their virus written. If the problem is a security glitch in the software, the manufacturer puts a "patch" on their Web site that you can download for free. If virus writers spot something everyone has overlooked, detectors and repair systems are released by anti-virus manufacturers, independent security groups and other organisations. The first step to protecting your computer is to buy a good anti-virus software package and keep it up to date. The CD-ROM you buy and install on your PC will protect you against a certain number of older viruses, but new viruses are being created every single day. To protect yourself against the one released yesterday and the one that will hit tomorrow, you must upgrade your virus definitions all the time. Good software can be configured to do this for you automatically. Check software options and set yours so that each time you go online, your program will check its records against new releases and update itself. Anti-virus software packages usually offer unlimited and free online updates for one year after registration. The second step is to keep all your other software, especially your e-mail software, up to date. Scan manufacturer Web product support pages for the latest news and patches. Be wary of bogus security company offering "patches" for popular software via e-mail or Web sites not part of your manufacturer's Web site. Stick to official sources only. When you have all the tools, use them! Scan your computer for problems each time you boot up and schedule regular system checks. When you receive an e-mail, or introduce a disk or CD-ROM or whatever into your computer, scan it for viruses first. It also makes good sense to configure your e-mail software not to open up or preview any incoming e-mail without checking with you first. To protect yourself against a newly released virus not yet recognised by your anti-virus software means treating incoming files with suspicion. If you receive an attachment from someone you don't know, throw it away. If you receive an attachment from someone you know but you are not expecting it, check to see if they sent it, or if a virus has hijacked their e-mail address book. Encourage friends to send you the uniform resource locator (URL) rather than the files for items they see and like online. If you think all this is paranoid, think about how much data you will lose if you get a virus - if you took the time to save it, taking precautions to keep that information safe is worth it. If you keep your software updated and are careful about accepting files from others, the chances of being affected by a computer virus are minimal. Well-known anti-virus products include Norton AntiVirus, McAfee VirusScan, PC-Cillin, Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Pro, and Panda Antivirus Platinum. Find one that suits your needs best by checking out software reviews. Good starting points are ZDNet at http://www.zdnet.com/products/softwareuser and PC World at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews. For more general information about viruses, check out How Stuff Works: Computer Virus at http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm and Bob Rankin's Virus Prevention 101 and 102 at http://www.tourbus.com. Check Yahoo Full Coverage at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc and click on Technology, Computer Viruses and Worms for current Press articles discussing computer viruses and products. |
