:: Viruses and Spyware and malware! Oh, my!

As an IT technician, I am constantly ridding computers of spyware, viruses and malware. On a frightening note, they are becoming more and more stealth, malicious and sophisticated. Once they infiltrate and infest your system, they can cause damage to your system, programs and files, steal sensitive data or hog up your bandwidth while surfing the Internet. Furthermore, they can also create a “back door” for other malicious programs or hackers to access your computer. The bottom line is these malicious programs are out to destroy or steal your information, programs and data.

The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” rings true in the Internet Technology arena. The Internet is there to be explored and enjoyed. To help insure this, there are precautions and safeguards that you can use to help fend off these malicious programs from infesting your computer. I will show you what these are. Let’s start off by defining viruses, spyware, and malware.

Viruses

A computer virus is a malicious script or program that can create copies of itself and distribute itself without the knowledge or permission of the computer user. Computer viruses are often hidden in computer programs that serve as its host. They act very similar to a biological virus that inhabits and controlls a cell. A virus reproduces by making copies of itself in the computer storage, memory or network. Currently, there are thousands of computer viruses circulating on the Internet and new viruses are discovered everyday.

Common Types of Viruses

Boot Sector Viruses These viruses infect the boot sector of a hard drive. The part of the computer operating system that starts the system. Once the hard drive is booted up, boot sector viruses load themselves into the computer memory. Many boot sector viruses, once executed, quite often prevent the operating system from booting. I’ve seen and removed many of these types of viruses

File Viruses: Commonly known as executable or parasitic viruses. File viruses attach themselves to executable files, drivers and other files in your computer. Once the virus is activated via the host program, the virus normally replicates itself and depending on how the virus was constructed, it can create widespread destruction in the host computer and any other connected computers. Many file viruses can be activated via a specific date or when a particular program is activated.

Macro Viruses: Macro viruses can pose a major threat. These viruses are written in the language of application programs such as: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and other programs that use macros. What makes macros viruses so dangerous is that because they are written in the code of the application software, they are platform independent. Macro viruses can spread between Mac, Windows, Linux and any other system, so long as they are running the required application.

Network Viruses: These viruses spread throughout Local Area Networks (LAN) and via the Internet. Once the virus finds and infects a computer, it then begins to search for another vulnerable computer to infect and continue its vicious cycle.

E-mail Viruses: This type of computer virus spreads itself through the use of your computer e-mail address book. It copies itself and e-mails itself to everyone in your address book, usually as an attachment and once the recipient opens the attachment, the virus repeats the process. These types of viruses are often referred to as “worms.”

How to Protect Your Computer From Viruses

There are effective measures you can use to help protect your computer from viruses. Purchase a good quality anti-virus program. Although any anti-virus programs cannot guarantee 100% safety from viruses; they do provide a substantial level of security when used properly. The key to using an antivirus program correctly is to update its virus definitions database frequently and to scan your computer at least once a week. You should also activate real-time monitoring so that your computer can scan incoming and outgoing data, including all e-mail and attachments.

What is Spyware & Malware and what does it do?

Spyware and Malware are software that is installed along with a program that is knowingly installed on your computer. Spyware collects information about your computer, data on your computer and information about you and it secretly sends to another computer or person via the Internet. Malware infects your computer and is typically designed to manipulate, vandalize or cause data loss to your computer. Browser hijacking is one way malware can effect your computer. You type in a specific search request in your browser, but you’re automatically sent to another website specifed by the walware to induce you to by their product or to further wreak havoc on your computer by downloading additional malware or viruses from that site. Spyware and malware are typically bundled (disguised) with “free” desktop screensavers or other free downloads and applications.

Businesses and individuals store all types of information on their computers. Data such as sensitive business information, company financial data, account numbers, credit card numbers, personnel information and other sensitive and confidential information.
When the Spyware or Malware program activates on your computer, it can collect this sensitive and private information and forward it to another person or computer or corrupt and destroy the data on the computer hard drive and then move throughout a network. All this can occur with little or no knowledge by the computer user.
What Types of Spyware and Malware Are There?

Spyware can be categorized by the level of intrusiveness and/or the use of information collected. Low-level spyware includes cookies and most adware. Medium to high level Spyware includes monitoring or surveillance activities. Spyware designed to collect information for criminal purposes. Malware can be categorized by the manner in which they spread. They can also be considered a virus or worm.

How to Protect Your Computer From Spyware & Malware

Purchase a good quality anti-virus and anti-spyware/malware software

There are two basic elements to any anti-spyware & anti-malware software. They are the ability to detect spyware and malware and the ability to remove the detected malicious programs. It’s best to purchase an anti-spyware/anti-malware program from a reputable manufacturer and make sure that it has real-time monitoring features which allow these programs to activlely monitor your computer and scan incoming and outgoing data, including all e-mail and attachments.

They are many spyware and malware programs that can go undetected even by the best antivirus. My advice is to also have a good anti-spyware/malware program that will detect the malicious programs that your antivirus misses. In other words, you need the combined defense of an good anti-virus and anti-spyware/malware to effectively keep your computer clean and safe.

Scan downloaded files

If you download files from the Internet, such as music files and pictures: be sure to scan the downloaded file before you execute (open) that file. This can usually be done by right clicking the file and selecting the “Scan” option of your particular anti-virus program. I would also recommend you scan it with your anti-spyware/malware program as well.

Stay away from questionable sites

Your computer can instantly be infected with a virus or malware just by visiting certain questionable sites. To aid in safe Internet surfing, try using Mcafe Site Advisor. This handy browser extension application has searched thousands of websites and has added them to its database. Mcafee Site Advisor will then provide you with particular site details and a color coded rating of the site. Green for safe, yellow for be cautious, and red for danger.

Keep Your Antivirus and Anti-spyware/malware programs updated

Good quality anti-virus and anti-spyware/malware programs constantly have their parent databases updated all the time so you need to connect to their servers and download these updates at least once a week.

*Just as a sidenote, having an anti-virus and anti-spyware programs running in the background in real time monitoring mode may cause your computer to run at a slower pace than usual. My advice here is to maximize your RAM memory (the memory that runs your programs) to avoid a sluggish running computer. Want to upgrade your memory? Trying using crucial.com. This site can scan your computer and provide you with your current computer memory and what you can maximize your memory to.

In conclusion, your best defense against viruses, spyware and malware is to set up a proactive defense. Purchase and install a reputable and established antivirus and anti-spyware/malware program. The threat of these malicious programs continues to grow so you cannot afford to be without protection. Also, be sure to apply wise surfing habits on the Internet. Last but not least, enjoy the Internet! It’s fun, informative and very much interactive.