Just what is a virus?

Most people call everything that infects a computer a "virus". However, that is not the case, Sun Tzu in his Art of War said a couple of quotable statements that in my opinion apply in a computer users battle with hackers that want to cause your harm. The first is "To know your Enemy, your must become your Enemy" The next is "Know thy self, know they enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." My only change would be to know your enemies you must become their enemy.

Becoming the Enemy

Becoming the Enemy might seem harsh but I would like to share a golden rule printer apprentices learn right away. "You must watch yourself every minute of every day when near a press, because the press is "Always" ready." A rule that I have seen broken all too many times. An operator may stay vigilant for 10 plus years and then one day forgets, as expected, the press did not.

That is what hacking is all about. Hackers are always ready, they might be asleep in bed but the "bots" they create crawl the web looking for openings around the clock. Computer users need to remain alert for an attack by a hacker at all times. Being knowledgeable and following the rules, make you the enemy of the hacker, that is how it should be. The good news is we just have to practice a few safety rules and stick to them, I have never seen a hacker obtain access to a system with the help of the user. We will cover every trick they use, as far as those I am aware of, and show you how to avoid falling for them.

Virus Functionality

A virus can spread via email attachments, shared files from a USB flash drive, DVD, CD or even clicking on an infected file and downloading it to your computer. Virus are not normally self propagating, (the don't normally contain the internal code to spread themselves but instead rely on people to spread them to their friends and co-workers.

Many weaker Antivirus programs only notice an attack after you complete a scan of your computer. They do not always prevent you from being infected but allow you to (disinfect) your computer after one is detected upon the completion of a scan a scan. That is why it is desirable to run scans frequently or have the program set to scan at least daily. Things have changed since I first wrote this article, most Antivirus programs are able to detect the presence of  potentially harmful code during the download process. The program should alert you of the issue and quarantine the offending file and delete it. Most give you the option of reviewing the file to ensure it is indeed an infection. I never take the chance, just delete it unless you are 100% sure it is not.

Not all Antivirus programs eliminate all virus it is up to the user to regularly download updates to ensure the program has a chance to remove the newest viruses. It is not a good idea to run two antivirus at the same time. Using a second program to scan files is acceptable.

Let's get started, The various types are listed in the left navigation panel. Click on anyone to learn more about it. You don't have to read every article today, and hopefully you will reread it in the future. Over time, you will have an understanding of what infections are, how they infect, how to avoid them and how to remove them if you should become infected. The first rule of Antivirus protection is to make a backup of your system, and to create a restore disk just incase the worse happens. Actually, if you have a current backup of your system the worse can't happen.