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Computer Virus Help |
| I don't consider myself a computer virus expert, but I have learned enough to keep my own computer virus-free and clean up viruses in the office. (My definition of a computer expert is someone who thinks they know more than the person asking the question.) |
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| What is a Computer Virus? | |
| A computer virus is usually a malicious program which
has a primary objective to spread from computer to
computer, annoying users, and possibly destroying data.
The best exmple would be a parasite that replicates
itself. On microcomputers, there are three major types,
boot infectors, program viruses, and macro viruses. Boot infectors attach themselves to the boot sector on a disk. To transmit a boot infector virus, you have to boot off the disk that has the virus embedded in it's boot sector. Once you do this, though, the boot sector virus can attach itself to the boot sector on your hard disk and then copy itself to any addtional floppy disk that you create. If you give one of these diskettes to someone else, they will then transfer the virus to their computer if they boot off that diskette, and the virus keeps spreading. The dangerous thing is that the diskette does not actually have to have the operating system on it. If you forget to take the diskette out of your A: drive and turn on the computer, you just transferred the virus to your hard disk, if the diskette had a boot sector virus on it. Program viruses attach themselves to .exe, .com, .dll, .ovl, .ov1, or any other executable program file (normally a specific program virus will only attach itself to one of these types, generally .exe). The virus spreads any time you execute a program that has the virus attached. This puts the program into memory, then the virus attaches itself to any other program that you execute, making that program also a carrier. This virus spreads when someone transfers a program with a virus attached to someone else, an ifected program is put out on a LAN, or an infected program is downloaded from the Internet or a BBS. Macro viruses are the newest and potentially the hardest to defend against. Macro viruses are written in the macro language included with particular application programs. They are a consequence of trying to make the application program as powerful as possible, but in so doing providing the power to make the program do things the authors never dreamed of. Macro viruses can be transferred on any data file that recognizes the particular macro language. Examples of file types that are starting to see viruses written for them are Word (.doc) files, Excel (.xls), and potentially ActiveX or Java plug-ins downloaded from Web sites. |
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| What are the symptoms of a virus? | |
| Viruses can take many different forms, some which you can see and others that you won't find out about until it's too late. Two fairly common symptoms are that they take up disk space, since they attach themselves to files, and they slow down the computer, because they're operating in the background. Some of them put messages on the screen or pictures or "black boxes". Others just destroy files, wipe out data, add words to files, or jumble up the data in files. Some of them are set up to do different things on different dates, such as the famous "Michelangelo virus" scare of a few years ago. One common trait that is consistent with all viruses is that they are written to replicate themselves so that they continue to spread. | |
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| Why would someone create a computer virus? | |
| This is a question that probably would be more appropriate on my Questions to Ponder page. There are just some people that get pleasure from causing distress to other people. They think they're programming geniuses or something, but there's really no challenge to writing a virus. Most viruses are just code that's been copied from someplace else and modified a little to make it "unique". Computer virus writers are really nothing more than high-tech graffiti taggers. Then there is the case where military or espionage organizations write viruses as an offensive weapon against the enemy. Unfortunately some of these have gotten out and created havoc among unsuspecting people. | |
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| How do I protect myself against computer viruses? | |
| First and foremost, buy yourself an anti-virus program. Two of the better programs are Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee VirusScan. Just buying the program is not enough though, you need to set it up so that it's always running in the background, just in case you inadvertantly try to introduce a virus into your system. You also need to download new virus information files on a monthly basis, since as fast as the anti-virus programmers put in the information to protect you from viruses, the demented virus programmers come up with new tweaks or variations to try to beat the anti-virus programs. | |
| You can also use some care and common sense in how you use your computer, which will help prevent viral infections: | |
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| Virus Hoaxes | |
| Virus hoaxes can sometimes be worse than actually getting a virus. One of the most famous is one called the "Good Times" virus. Basically an e-mail is sent out saying that there's this virus that is transmitted by e-mail and to warn all of your friends. People then send this message to all of their friends, who send it to theirs, etc. In affect they are unknowingly perpetuating the virus themselves. I've gotten more e-mails about this virus than any other from some pretty reliable sources. Another trick that the demented virus programmers have come up with is fulfilling a warning after it goes out. There was an e-mail that got sent out about a virus called "AOL4Free", that was supposedly a program that gave you free access to AOL, but really had a virus in it. Initially this was a virus hoax, until one of these demented punks made it a self-fulfilling prophecy by creating a virus called "AOL4Free". The Michangelo virus, was not a hoax, since it was an actual virus program, but the news media panicked people into believing this one was more than it was. The Michaelangelo virus is one that does its damage on a particular date, in this case Michaelangelo's birthday. I don't know how many people told me they weren't going to turn on their computers or access the Internet on that day for fear of getting the virus, when all they had to do was use the preventative measures mentioned above and they wouldn't have had anything to worry about. | |
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| More Sources of Virus Information | |
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 refnor@mgfairfax.rr.com |
| Last modified: 08-29-99 |
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