Computer Viruses

Your computer is so slow as molasses. My mouse freezes every 15 minutes, and the Microsoft Word program will not only seem to open.
Perhaps you have a virus.
Just what exactly is a virus? What is your computer? How did it get there? How is it that such dissemination and wreaking havoc? And why did they bother with your computer?.......


Viruses are pieces of code, the copies of itself, or replicate in your computer without your express written permission to do so. Remember to get your permission paper. Viruses do not bother to seek your permission to all! Very invasive.

In comparison, there are pieces of code that could replicate in your computer, say something your IT man believes that you need. But the code is spreading, perhaps in your office network, with your consent (or at least your IT Guy's consent). This kind of code are called agents, said Jimmy Kuo, research fellow with McAfee AVERT, a research arm of the anti-virus software manufacturer McAfee Inc.

In this article, but we do not speak the better or the agents. We are talking about the bad guys, the viruses.

A long, long time before computer years, as five, most viruses were derived from a similar race. You may be your computer through an e-mail attachment or a floppy disk (remember those?). Then they attached themselves to one of your files, say your Microsoft Word program.

If you opened your Microsoft Word program, the virus replicated and attach itself to other files. This could also be other random files on your hard drive, the files furthest away from your Microsoft Word program or other files, depending on how the virus writer wanted the virus to behave.

This virus code could contain hundreds or thousands of instructions. If it adds it repeats these statements in the files it infects, said Carey After hill, Chief Architect at Symantec Research Labs, an arm of the anti-virus software manufacturer Symantec. Corp.

Because so many other types of virus are there now, just described is called a classic virus. Classical viruses still exist, but they are not as prevalent as they are used. (Maybe we could have the classic viruses on the shelf with Hemingway and Dickens.)

In those days, in the modern era, viruses are known by security flaws in Web browser, files shared over the Internet, e-mails themselves, and computer networks.

As far as web browsers are affected, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the largest part of the heat for the spread of viruses, because there are more people surfing the Web than any other browser.

However, "any web browser may vulnerabilities," said Under hill.

For example, say you to a site in IE, you have every reason to believe is safe, last hill said.

But unfortunately is not. It has virus code hidden in the background is that, for example, not to protect. While you are on the premises, the virus is downloaded to your computer, he said. This is a way to Fang a terrible virus.

During the past two years, another way to a virus, computer users through downloads shares with another, especially on music-sharing sites, said Kuo. On LimeWire or Kazaa, for example, young people and other music enthusiasts might think she realized that downloading the latest Justin Timberlake song, when in reality they are downloading a virus directly into their computer. It is easy for a virus writer to a download with a virus in one of these areas because everyone's together with all other anyway.

Here is one might not have thought. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express to send and receive e-mails, you have a preview window on your list of e-mails shows that the content of e-mail address? If so, you may put yourself in danger.

Some viruses, though a small percentage by last hill be inserted directly into e-mails.

Forget the opening of the plant. All you have to do is believe, e-mail to potentially a virus, Kuo added. For example, have you ever opened or an e-mail seen that read "shop"? Well, once everything is loaded, "a virus in the e-mail can only load on your computer.

So, if I can, I would like to see in the toolbar in your Outlook or Outlook Express and close the preview window. (You must click on View and then layout in Outlook Express.)

On a network at work? It could be a virus in this way. Worms are viruses that your computer via networks, said Kuo. They travel from machine to machine and, unlike the classic viruses, they are attacking the machine itself rather than individual files.

Worms sit in your memory, or RAM, said after hill.

OK, so we talked about how the virus in a computer. How can cause so much damage if they are there?

Suppose that you have even a classic virus, that replicates and attacks various files on your computer. Let's go back to the example of the virus that initially your Microsoft Word program.

Well, it could ultimately cause the program to crash, said after hill. It could also cause damage to your computer as it looks for new targets to infect.

This process of infection objectives and the search for new could eventually use on your computer's ability to function, he said.

Often the destruction, a virus is linked to a specific event or date and time, as a trigger. For example, a virus could be programmed to lay dormant until 28 January. If at that time rolls around, if it can be programmed to do something as harmless, but annoying pop-ups like splash on your screen or in a slightly heavier than reformatting the hard drive of your computer, said after hill.

There are other possible reasons, but for a virus cause your computer to act slowly or in strange ways. And that leads us to a new segment - the reason virus writers want to waste their time to create viruses in the first place.

The majority of viruses are still written by teenagers looking for some notoriety, said after hill. But a growing segment of the virus-writing population has other intentions in mind.

For these other intentions, we must first explain the "back door" approach.

The sole purpose of some viruses is to create a security vulnerability on your computer. Once it creates this hole on the nature, or backdoor, it signals at home Mom or dada virus writers (such as in ET). Once the virus writer receives the signal, they can and abuse your computer to their own inclinations.

Trojans are sometimes used to open back doors. In fact, in the rule that their only purpose, said Kuo.

Trojans are parts of the code can be downloaded to your computer, say, from a newsgroup. As in the Trojan war, they are by name, they are usually disguised as harmless pieces of code. But Trojans are not as viruses, because they can not replicate.

Let's go back to the real viruses. Let's say we have Joe Shmo virus writers. He sends a virus, ends an infection than a thousand computers. But he does not want the feds on his case. So he instructed the virus to the various machines to send their signals, of course not on his computer, but to a place that can not be tracked. Hotmail e-mail happens, as an example of such a place, Kuo said.

OK, so that the virus writers now control these computers. What will they use them?

A bet is to send spam. Once this back door open, they bounce off spam this computer and send it to other machines, last hill said.

That's right. Some spam you have in your e-mail immediately in May, originally other innocent computers before he came to you, so that they could remain in disguise. If the authorities could track the original senders of spam, they could crack on spam. Spam senders do not want.

Ever heard of phishing e-mails? Those are the ones that purport to be from your Internet service provider or bank. Usual request some information from you as your credit card number. The problem is not from your Internet Service Provider or your bank. They are evil people for your credit card number! Well, these e-mails sent are often the same way spam is sent by them on innocent computers.

Of course, manufacturers of anti-virus software use a variety of methods to combat attacks by viruses. Norton, for example, uses signature scanning, said after hill.

Signature scanning is similar to the process of looking for DNA fingerprints, he said. Norton examines code to find what viruses are. It adds this bad instructions it finds that its extensive database of other bad code. Then it uses this huge database to search for and with the code, with similar code on your computer. If it finds such virus code, you can know! http:// www.karathecomputertutor.com