Hoax Busters - Safe Computing

In the early days of computing, the main delivery source for malicious programs (viruses, worms, Trojan horses) was via file sharing – passing files around on disk or diskette. These days, e-mail is the vehicle of choice because this is the weakest link in the computer security chain. Infected programs are easily passed along as attachments to an e-mail message, and a simple click of the mouse is all that is required to start a devastating chain reaction, sometimes resulting in the complete destruction of all data stored on a hard drive.

These types of programs are known as executable programs. One has to actually cause the program to run to activate the malicious code within the program. You could compare this to running a copy of Word, or Quicken, or any other type of program that produces some kind of result. Typically, these executable programs end with the file extension of .exe, .com, .bat, .pif, .vbs and .scr (screensaver).

Virus writers take advantage of security flaws that are built right into these mail programs to deposit their evil little "worms." Most of these worms work the same way: it first infects your computer, then, exploiting the "flaws" within Outlook or Outlook Express, sends itself to everyone in your e-mail address book. Because all of this happens automatically, without the knowledge of the infected user, the infected file that you received will have appeared to have been sent to you specifically by your friend. It will appear to be a file that they really wanted you to have. You then activate the virus in your system by double clicking on the file, and the process begins all over again, with the infected file being sent from your computer, and so on, and so on, and so on. Now, because of certain Microsoft programming flaws, it is possible to become infected merely by looking at the message in the preview pane of Outlook or Outlook Express, with no further action required by the user.

There are literally thousands of computer viruses. Fortunately, most of these are not in circulation. In the parlance of the trade, these are known as being in the zoo. But when they are out on the Internet, being circulated in e-mail, they are known as being in the wild. Most of the viruses seen these days are actually worms. Generally, a worm will find its way into the user's address book and send a copy of itself to everyone in the address book. Remember the Melissa Virus? It was sending so many copies of itself that it literally shut down some big commercial systems. Some of the worms making the rounds these days are Pretty Park, Happy 99, My Pics, Freelink and Bubble Boy. Some of these worms are benign in nature, such as making a message pop up on a monitor screen. But some, like the recent Naked Wife virus, are very destructive, able to wipe out selected files, or an entire hard drive. Viruses are able to hide in files, in computer memory, or in the boot sector of a hard drive.

So what can one do to protect against contracting a computer virus? Practice safe computing! First and foremost, use an antivirus program. And for goodness sake, update the virus data file on a regular basis (daily, if possible). Always check programs downloaded from the Web with an antivirus program. Always check software borrowed from a friend (even if they say that it's virus free). Never open an executable program received via e-mail (this last piece of advice may upset some folks), even from someone that is known (the program could still be infected without the sender's knowledge). Never open any files with a double file extension such as loveletterforyou.txt.vbs and make sure Windows is configured to show the file extensions for ALL file types. Finally, if using Microsoft products for browsing and/or e-mail, download the latest security updates directly from the Microsoft website.

Here is how to practice safe computing: