There are thousands of them and more appear every day. They often take the least expected forms. They know your weak points extremely well. And they can do a lot of damage.
A brain teaser? No, a disturbing reality. We are talking about a threat that affects anyone who uses a computer - viruses.
So how can you deal with the threat? You can just hope that it does not happen to me. You can trust your luck. But, what if it does?
The second option is to have preventative ways to help minimize your PCs exposure to the computer virus threat.
The first step to make sure you're completely virus free is to test your PC for possible infection; this is done using anti-virus software. There are factors that increase your risk to getting viruses. Some of them are:
Do you borrow floppy disks from someone?
Did someone install music or programs from their PC onto a CD-ROM?
Do you connect to the Internet?
Do you use e-mail?
Are your PCs stand-alone or connected together?
Does more than one person use your PC?
Do you use chat room software?
This past year, the following entry points were used to attack a PC with a virus:
Email: 83%
Internet downloads: 15%
Web browsing: 7%
Auto software distribution: 2%
Floppy disks, CD-ROMs - 5%
Other: 2%
The numbers overlap 100% due to multiple methods a virus can be transferred.
In order to block each virus point, one can do the following:
Anti-virus software:
- Download or purchase in a store anti-virus software. The two main companies are Symantec's Norton Anti-virus and McAfee's anti-virus software. There are others, but these two have a fair share of the marketplace.
- Keep this software updated. Daily updates are not too often.
- Have the software on auto-detect.
E-mail:
- Don't give your email address to people you do not know.
- Do not continually sign up for e-mail sub scri ptions.
- Do not open attachments from people you do not know.
- Make sure that your anti-virus software is set to scan your e-mail real-time. After the fact could be too late.
Internet:
- Avoid downloading games, etc. on your PC unless it is from a reputable dealer and they have a secured site.
- Avoid pages that say - Can you give us permission to install a program on your PC, unless again, it is from a reputable site.
CDs and floppy disks:
- Avoid using floppies and CDs from unknown origins.
- Check and scan any floppy or CD inserted on your system.
There is no such thing as 100% virus-free environment. The only thing we can do is to help minimize the exposure to viruses and to help prevent a virus from going on your PC.
Let's take a look at the following scenario:
Say it is Tuesday morning and you just updated your PC with anti-virus software updates.
It is now 3:30 in the afternoon. A new virus invented this Tuesday afternoon was just deployed through e-mail. You receive an e-mail containing this new virus. You open up the attachment. Your PC is now infected.
Why, you might ask?
The virus software program was not aware that a new virus was born. This new virus, unless it copied some other strain of virus can go around undetected. The virus companies become aware of new viruses from people like us, and the software companies update their software to prevent it in the future. Sometimes it's the same day, sometimes the next day or longer. It all depends on how quickly they come up with a "fix".
You did prevent any other viruses from going on your system by downloading the updates. You were only exposed for a small amount of time to any "new" viruses.
Conclusion:
The best thing we can hope for is to be in a preventative mode and get rid of the thought - "It can't happen to me". Because it is just a matter of time before it will happen to you.
Another preventative measure is make sure that all of your data is backed up to a CD, external drive or floppy disk. Something real important to you could easily be erased if a virus did hit your personal PC.
