Bay of Isles Computers Support and Technical Tips

Bay of Isles Computers

63B Dempster Street
Esperance WA 6450

Ph: 08 9071 5542
Fax: 08 9071 5549

boic@boic.net.au

<< back to archives menu << back to tech tips

Internet support

provided by:

Deadly Viruses

Thanks to Sunday Times 'Connect' and alta vista March 18, 2001

How to protect your computer from those annoying and destructive bugs.

Have you met these?

What do Anna Kournikova, a love letter, Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs, and the latest Shockwave flash movies all have in common.
All are linked to notorious computer viruses which are spread via e-mail attachments in which devious virus writers have hidden code designed to attach and upset your computer.
Viruses have become an unfortunate but accepted face of modern computing.
They work by linking themselves to a computer program. When the program runs, the virus runs and replicates by attaching itself to other programs.

Their History

Ten years ago most viruses traveled slowly. They spread primarily on pirated software and were preventable with good detection and elimination software. With the growing popularity of e-mail and the Internet, viruses have become an entirely new problem.
Virus builders have websites dedicated to their skills and openly peddle virus building programming on the web, much like the one used by OnTheFly, who created the Anna Kournikova virus ( check www.virii.com.ar for example )

How they spread

The quickest and easiest way to spread viruses has been inside e-mail attachments.
The IloveYou virus pretended to be a document, the Shockwave virus pretended to be a flash file and the Anna Kournikova virus was hidden in a fake jpeg. All these viruses preyed on e-mailers who sent each other jokes, pictures (jpegs) or flash attachments.

Who creates them?

Who creates viruses and why? The rumour is that they are created by anti-virus software companies, but there is no evidence for this. Most viruses are created by hackers or computer programmers.
The hackers claim they are not malicious, but create the viruses to highlight security flaws in programs such as Microsoft Outlook.
Ironically, virus solutions are sometimes worse than the problem. E-mail warnings about viruses have clogged entire computer networks.

What to do about them?

So how do you protect yourself from viruses? Never open unsolicited e-mail attachments. The key point is to remain wary about unexpected attachments, especially those with generic messages such as "check this out".
If you are warned not to click on something, leave it alone. Hackers love to punish users who don't do what they tell them.

Programs & Patches

Virus programs and patches can also fix basic program flaws and scan attachments to weed out the nasties.
One virus targets a flaw in Microsoft Outlook Express and users of this program should install a patch available at: www.microsoft.com/technet/security
If your computer is already infected with the VBS.KakWorm, Symantec has a tool to repair the damage at: www.symantec.com

And more still.

There are heaps of security sites on the Net where you can check out information on new viruses and downloads to defeat them. Take a look at: csrc.nist.gov or www.f-secure.com/virus-info
If you think the entire viruses problem is desperately overrated then you are not the only one. Like minds at www.vmyths.com will keep you amused by poking fun at the virus panic and keep you up-to-date with all the latest virus hoaxes and myths.