Before talking about defense, here is a story about one of the most famous computer viruses:
In 1998, a chinese student, Chen Ing-hau, created the virus named CIH or Chernobyl. The second name was given to the virus because coincidentally, some variants of the virus triggered upon the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. It infected over 60 million computers, causing a damage of over 1 billion US dollars. It was one of the most damaging viruses as it could destroy the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System, the "soul" of the computer) which resulted in hardware failure, ergo the people had to buy a new motherboard. It was spreading on various mediums: Yamaha even released CD drives that were infected with the virus.
From this example, we can see that defense against such programs is very important.
Here are the most common types of computer viruses:
Trojan horse
Trojan horse viruses are applications that are usually downloaded by the user. They disguise themselves as useful programs, but they do malicious stuff in the background, for example they steal your data, send your personal information, or just simply destroy some files.
Spyware
These are in relation with the previous category, as the purpose of spyware programs is to send or steal personal data without permission. These are very common, because the user himself often helps these programs to gather data. For example, browsers tend to remember your passwords and usernames, and this offers spyware programs an easy path to steal data. Tracking cookies stored by browsers help viruses to track down your computer's IP address, which can serve as a key to your stored data.
Worms
A computer worm is the "classic" form of the computer virus, spreading over various mediums such as the Internet, local networks, or over portable data storage tools. It multiplies itself and it can cause a huge damage in hundreds of thousands of computers. They are not attached to another program like most viruses.
Keyloggers
These programs are hiding in your PC's memory constantly and they store the keystrokes of your keyboard. This way, they can get access to passwords, bank account numbers and so on if the user types them while the keylogger is active.
So, how to deal with these malicious software?
Most importantly, be aware about what you download, what you click on and which sites do you visit. If you go onto a suspicious-looking site, think twice before downloading something. Also, do not check e-mails that come from an unknown, suspicious sender. It is needless to say that if there are files attached, do not even try to open them.
Secondly, get good antivirus software. There are many good ones out there, and it is up to the user to decide which one is the best. Norton and ESET offers great antivirus software for a price for example. However, these are not free, although they offer very effective protection. I used both of them and although Norton Antivirus consumes a lot of memory and therefore can make older PCs a bit slower, I was satisfied.
Currently, I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials. Some say it is not the best, but it is
- Free
- Consuming a low amount of memory
- Fast
- Effective
...and ever since I'm using it (It's been around two years), I had zero problems with it.
The third important fact is that having a good antivirus software does not make your pc miraculously protected. You need to update the database of the antivirus program regularly (usually it is an automated process), and you need to scan your PC regularly, at least weekly to make sure it is clean.
Besides antivirus software, I highly recommend a trojan searcher program to use regularly, which is Spybot Search and Destroy. This handy tool searches your PC for anything that is remotely harmful. It finds the problem every single time. It also has a real-time protection system that offers non-stop defense. I strongly suggest you to download and use this program and do a scan with it every now and then.
0 comments:
Post a Comment