Mike's TechPapers
"Virus Protection"

Just a few quick tips that many users overlook
which can help you keep protected.

• Make sure you have a quality anti-virus program installed on your system.

• Keep it updated and be sure to frequently download the latest virus definition files to allow it to catch newer bugs as they circulate.   Often users come in to my shop with the definition files several years old. They had purchased their anti-virus program, and never downloaded the updated definitions. To add insult to injury, the typical antivirus software on CD was up to date when it was made, but by the time it is sent to the stores through the usual marketing chain, it may be anywhere from a few months to over a year out of date. This is why the companies who market these tools ask you to connect and get the latest files as soon as possible. 

• Be sure that it is set to scan ALL FILES, as many of the new virus types can infect HTML (webpage) files, word documents, and other common file types. By default most anti-virus programs check only the executable (program) files.

• If your anti-virus program has the capability to scan email as it comes in, be sure to enable that if you use NETSCAPE,  OUTLOOK EXPRESS or other user based email software for your email. If you use web-based email (such as HOTMAIL) this is not needed.  Many new virus types will come as attachments to email messages.

• Be aware that most email virus bugs come from people you know. Just because the message is from cousin Bob, does not indicate that it is 100% safe. If you were not expecting that message - be suspicious. Does the subject   sound enticing - teasing, or possibly more business like than you would expect?   Is the time of the message from a time of day you would expect this person to post to you?  If you are not sure (or well protected) you might email them and verify that its on the up and up before opening. Why? Because most of the better virus or worms can read a persons email address book and mail directly to them a message which appears to come from you. This will not show up in your SENT MAIL folder either. Pretty sneaky.

• Another good tip for protecting yourself is to be sure that Windows (if you use Windows) is set to show the full filename. By default (theres that word again) Windows will hide common extensions so that a file named SLIDESHOW.EXE - a program - will just appear as SLIDESHOW.  Why is this a problem?   Because a virus trick is to send you a file that may be something like this - SANTAPIC.JPG.EXE - a program that could be damaging but with the default Windows settings this file will look like SANTAPIC.JPG - which you would assume to be a picture in the common JPG graphics format.  Sneaky times two.

• A floppy diskette that has no files showing on it, does have one program, and it can hurt your system dearly. No, I am not hallucinating... its true.  When you by a pre-formatted diskette, or format one on your system, it does place a small program on the disk when you format it that is there for one purpose. When you attempt to start the system and have the disk in the drive, this small program is loaded and runs. It displays the message "Not a system disk, press any key to continue" or similar. Some smarter virus writers have used this to infect a system. You have a diskette with nothing on it, or perhaps some simple text files, a picture, a letter to grandma, whatever... and you think its safe. If the virus is in place of this secret program that displays the 'not a system disk' message, you could get the virus when you boot up with the floppy in the drive. Very sneaky!!

• Some of the really smart virus types are what we call STEALTH virus. They have a simple ability to morph into a slightly different code when they detect an attempt to be found. If your system is infected with one of these it sometimes can be difficult to detect it without booting up from a clean boot disk and running a small dos version of the virus scanning program. Some years back there was a local school which carefully formatted a large batch of disks and scanned them all for virus infections and inadvertently handed out many nice copies of a STEALTH virus. They were sure they were 'clean' disks... the virus scan did not show any virus. Of course if you checked the diskettes on a clean machine running the same virus scan program they showed up easily.

• We used to think that the only way to get a virus was to run an infected program. Now you can get many of the trojans, worms and virii by just opening your email program, or viewing a page on the net. The recent trojan NIMDA (sept 2001) would travel on a local area network and infect files, add a javascript code at the end of a webpage so that just viewing the page causes a hidden loader to grab the NIMDA without your knowledge, and also attach to email messages and send to those in your address book. A very scary and sneaky critter.

• At last check there are nearly 60,000 known virus, trojan, worms and macro virus types in existence. Some are nuisances, some cripple or kill a system and other try to use your system to damage or cripple others. Some will allow another user to access your system anytime you are online. I mention this not to scare you away from computers and the internet, but to make you aware of how important a good virus protection is to have.

• Good virus protection is constantly checking the system, routinely scanning all your files. Most will scan any file you copy or move when you do that. Most watch and check any file you download. Most will test any floppy you insert. We used to think that CDs were safe, as a virus could not write to them. However with the advent of CDR and CDR/W disks, this is now false. If you have a virus and copy a file to a CDR or CDR/W to save or give to someone.... yep... bingo.  Worst still... since its not a erasable media (at least not like a floppy or hard disk) the anti-virus programs can't delete or clean that file directly as they could on other disks.

• Virus protection and performance of your system do tie in with each other. As most good virus protection is running constantly, checking the system, it does take up some of the available memory, resources and time from your processor. This has to give less power to other programs you are running. Do we need to have the anti-virus protection running at all times? No.  If you are not getting email, downloading a file or copying something from an untested disk, you can temporarily disable the anti-virus protection and not take up the power, memory, speed and performance. Just be sure that it is re-started when you re-boot or before you do anything that could put your system at risk.

Good folks, I see people's computers that have been crippled, or have lost files that they really can't replace far too often. While it is a hassle to do good protection and more of a hassle to do good backups of your computers files - it is the only way to protect yourself. Please, please copy any files you do not want to lose to other disks periodically. If you would like some good tricks and tips to make backups and protect key system files, check the tech help paper on "BACKUP TIPS & TRICKS".

Please use good antivirus protection and keep it updated and set to do all it can for you. I have plenty of work to keep me busy and would prefer to do other work on your system that would help you get more from your computer.

PLEASE CHECK BACK FROM TIME TO TIME - THIS PAGE WILL
CHANGE AS NEW METHODS AND VIRUS INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE.

Last modified: 06/07/07

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