At least once a year someone releases a computer virus and the chat rooms go crazy, along with the media that whips up into a frenzy with everyone talking about the billions lost in down time. You would think people would learn by now that if you take the proper precautions you won't become a victim. The latest "I Love You" virus is just another in a long string of computer nasties. So this is my annual anti-virus column - a rehash of course.
Catching a virus is no fun. There are malicious computer programmers that make it their goal to hurt your computer or mess up your data. They purposely write software programs that will erase your hard drive, delete files, or replicate itself so it grinds your computer to a halt. They thrive on becoming God, able to bring the Net "World" to a halt. You'll see the names Trojan Horse, Worm, or Virus, but it really doesn't matter what they're called. The end result of getting one is hours of grief and downtime, and sometimes complete hardware failure.
There are hundreds of these critters running around the PC world. Files that have the extensions EXE, COM, or PRG can be carrying viruses. Basically any executable file can carry one. A "Macrovirus" can affect Microsoft Word files on both PC and Mac. Macintosh computers are not immune to viruses either and they are subject to autostart worms, system attackers, and macro viruses.
The 'I Love You' virus is the newest nastie but it wasn't too long ago that I was writing about a new Trojan Horse called picture.exe that looked into directories and grabbed information only to send it back to an email address in China. Remember the Windows 98 virus spreading before the actual release of Windows 98!
These critters get into your computer pretty much the same way. You either download them from a source like the Internet, an unsuspecting email (like the latest one), a local network at work, or from a friend who gives you an infected disk. All the viruses behave a bit differently, but the end result is the same. Your data or hardware is threatened or killed.
No matter what computer platform you use, PC or Mac, there are common sense ways to combat getting infected. There are several free, shareware, and commercial virus detectors and eradicators that will do the job.
Commercial software such as Norton Anti Virus, PC Tools and McAfee Viruscan can check for and remove viruses from your hard drive or floppy disks.
As new bugs enter the computer world, the commercial companies (and the shareware developers) send out patches or updaters to their software to kill them. Many of the companies are pretty quick about getting out a vaccine too!
Most virus checkers regardless if they are commercial, free, or shareware, pretty much do the same job.
To keep abreast of the latest on computer viruses, you can visit the Web site AntiVirus Resources
(http://www.hitchhikers.net/av.shtml). It contains several sections that cover alerts, security issues, recent attacks, disinfecting and recovery methods. It also has a developers section, news, research, reviews, and a software section where you can download virus killers. Finally, it has a link to several virus encyclopedias.
If you are a Mac user, read Viruses and the Macintosh (http://www.icsa.net/html/communities/antivirus/faqs/macfaq.shtml), or subscribe to the virus tip of the day at http://www.topica.com/tipworld.
You can subscribe to an Internet mailing list to keep abreast of the latest developments and appearance of viruses. To join the VIRUS-L mailing list, send an email to listserv@lehigh.edu and in the body of the message type SUBSCRIBE VIRUS-L Your First Name and Last Name.
You should always be cautious when downloading software from the Net or especially commercial online services like America Online, or CompuServe. They tell you their software is checked for viruses before they are made available for downloading, but even they have been fooled.
Perhaps the most likely place to catch a computer virus is at work. If you are on a network, one can spread through the network to your disk drive, or floppy. Colleagues swap disks back and forth and that's another common way to transfer a bug. You should have virus checkers on your computer there as well, especially if you bring work home.
Perhaps the best piece of advice I can give is never download programs from the Net directly to your hard drive. Instead I have a Zip disk that acts as my download receiver. After I download the programs to the disk, I run my various virus programs on the disk and perform a check. In all the years I have been using personal computers, I have never had a virus, including the latest one.
Finally, if you spend time on the Net, you will eventually get a notice about the Good Times Virus. This is a hoax that started in 1994 and once a year it gets spread around the Net. I suppose in a way you could call this a virus since we can't seem to get rid of it. A virus hoax can be as bad as a real virus since it puts a scare into folks, and confuses people new to the Net as to which ones are real or fake. There are a lot of hoaxes : PKZ300, Irina, Good Times, Good Times Spoof, Deeyenda, Ghost PENPAL GREETINGS!, Make Money Fast, NaughtyRobot, AOL4FREE, Join the Crew, Death Ray, AOL V4.0 Cookie, A.I.D.S. Hoax, Internet Cleanup Day, Bill Gates Hoax, WIN A HOLIDAY, AOL Riot June 1, 1998, E-mail or get a Virus, Bud Frogs Screen Saver, Disney Giveaway Hoax, Internet Access Charge, to name a few.
There is an excellent Web site maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) group (http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/). The site lists and explains all the above hoaxes, and teaches you how to identify a new hoax or real warning, and what to do if you think a message is a hoax.
Another good Web site is Computer Virus Myths (http://www.kumite.com/myths/).
If you follow these basic common sense approaches to computing, chances are the only bugs you will get are the ones that require plenty of rest and two asperin.
©2000 Don Rittner