Alien Intruders!

You probably didn't casually invite, or extend a formal attendance requestto, these undesirables known as viruses.

Regardless of your opinions, such cyber-nomads may call on you, complete andactive, with their destructive payloads.

So what is a virus?

A virus is a program that can self replicate or reproduce itself.These programmable pirates have a special talent for attaching themselves toexecutable programmes. When such programmes are executed (often by you, butnot always), so is the virus.

They don't necessarily have an ".exe" file extension and are relativemasters of disguise. Extensions can be doubled-up to create an opticalillusion or optically misleading appearance.

A boot sector virus is probably the worst in so far as it will upset thenormal loading of your operating system and therefore, disable yourcomputer. Pointers to your 0.S., can be overwritten, effectively, renderingit to be non-existant. That's never a good thing but not the end of theworld, however it seems.

Following, is an example of how devilishly deceptive these vindictive vermonare, in their presentation

A friend of mine rang me last week in a distressed state, with news that herI.S.P. was threatening to shut down her e-mail account because her computercontained viruses affecting her outgoing mail This message seemed to comefrom her provider but in fact was created by a worm (type of virus). Thee-mail was complete with the providers U.R.L., instructions to open itsattachment (which it claimed that it contained a free virus cleaner) andeven a password to access the attachment. This password could "swing" somecautious people to believe that the attachment was legitimate. Indeed therewas only one mistake and it was that the e-mail in question was addressed to"Dear account holder" and not her specific e-mail address.

What is often helpful in determining legitimatacy, is to simply check theproperties of the particular mail or e-letter. Where the "from" field can beset to display any name(as spammers demonstrate), more info. via theproperties option, may help you to decide.

Attachments are potentially dangerous. You should train yourself to look forsuch things, and not exclusively this. If you have a suspicion, ignore them.

If it seems an awful lot more important than account closure warnings(family matters), then simply ring the addressee in question. Surely mostother matters can wait until office opening hours in cases where 24-hourtelephone support is not an option. Incidentally, the described worm is aBAGLE variant and is currently in circulation and though it can be cleaned,can also be disruptive.

Smallish text files can be copied and pasted into your e-mail client,eliminating an unnecessary attachment. Doing this will increase the chancesof your friends recieving your mail as account providers can have automatedsoftware that block mail outside certain perameters, and often legitimateones are blocked. The limitation when pasted directly into your client isfile size.

Incidentally, free and other accounts, in a bid to obliterate spam, can makesucessful mail delivery a nightmare. An option is to put yourinfo./file/picture on some free webspace and simply e-mail the link to it.

Another virus infects your macros( a program,within a program that issimilar in delivery to predictive text), and is known as a macro virus andaffects the usability of associated files, which are usually files producedusing text editors or word processing programs.Saving such files in R.T.F. or rich text format where you have an otpion, ishelpful. Turning your macros "off" could be considered, but their benefitsare lost and the virus has won, even before entry.

These are harmless enough and there is no need to freak out. A free cleaningoption is mentioned below.

If your great grandmother, untypically sends you software as an attachment,and typically sends you a woolen sweater, then alarm bells should sound.

Anyone who depends on their P.C. as a tool and not a toy, needless to say,should discourage forwarded jokes.These jokes can be time-consuming to read,can be colossal in number, are often habitually forwarded, and not reallyworth the threat. Believe me when I say that I'm opposite to a "killjoy" andmean this, for semi-serious users who rely on their respective and respectedmachines.

Consciously or unconsciously, forwarding is "viral", and a perfect vechicleto that end. While it is a very useful and functional tool, perhaps its' usecould be limited to its' initial purpose. Human interaction can contributeto the propagation of "troublesome transients". There are other ways tocommunicate with your friends.

Of course, if you can afford it, you should get an anti-virus program.Corporations, companies and anyone without financial restraint have suchprograms updated continuously as no-one can predict when (in real time) thatsome virus creator will decide to unleash his newest version. Previous virusdefinitions are of little use in protecting against future viruses. Suchdefinitions describe the nature (how and where infection occurs) and anengine is used to scan or locate and clean the infected files. Given thereproductive properties of viruses, the amount of such infected files can beenormous and sometimes they are files with particular extensions.

Regular domestic P.C. users should probably update their definitions weeklyand there are anti -virus software manufacturers that will scan your machinefor free (use your search engine) but it should be remembered that the viruscould already be in your machine at this stage. The program that you pay forcan block them at all entry points and is the nearest thing to protection.

Definitive protection requires you to connect to nothing, insert or installnothing, network with no one, and perhaps swabbing your machine with anindustrial disinfectant. However, I would consider such measures to beexcessive and no way to live your productive life.

Wishing you the best of luck for the future, and may your connection withthese "malicious modem and medium migrants" be in the singular, as most ofus learn more diligently (not faster), through experience.

About The Author

Seamus Dolly is the webmaster of http://www.CountControl.com His background is in engineering and analogue electronics. His studies include A+, Net+ and Server+; seamus@countcontrol.com