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A virus is a way of saying that a piece of software from a computer is acting very strange or weird. Once you have a virus on your computer it could spread from computer to computer.
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A virus is a way of saying that a piece of software from a computer is acting very strange or weird. Once you have a virus on your computer it could spread from computer to computer.
A Computer Virus is a software program that is designed to copy itself over and over again and to attach itself to other programs. At first people who invented viruses had a certain misplaced sense of humour. For example, there was a virus that caused all the characters on screen to drop into a heap at the bottom of the display. Very annoying, but relatively harmless.
Quite soon some really nasty versions came out that were deliberately designed to corrupt and delete your files as well as trying to copy itself everywhere. The "Melissa" virus was so effective in spreading itself that many huge corporations had to shut down their email systems until the virus could be contained. It is important to understand that viruses do NOT damage the hardware. They affect the data and programs stored on your computer.
The most common ways of getting a virus is opening an email attachment or visiting a certain website that may contain one. Another way a virus can be spread is, that you could have a storage device that could have already a virus stored on the it and then could do more damage to more computers.
When viruses became more and more serious companies made up a discovery that there is a cure for viruses. It was named “anti-virus software”. It acted so that when the anti-virus software recognises a virus pattern, it will alert the user that they have a virus and then its up to them if they want to remove it from their system or totally forget about the virus.
Mc Afee Norton
Certain ways can prevent you from having a computer virus. For example : • Using anti-virus software to scan your system daily or weekly Scanning all incoming e-mails. • Avoiding attachments from people that you don't know (or attachments which look suspicious) • Unless you are using a website that you know is safe e.g. football web sites then it is sage to use. However clicking on web site offers which look too good to be true, for example you have one a free…this is a scam in which the web site tricks you on thinking you have one a free gift although the gift tht you will get is a virus.
As the internet has grown and millions of people are online, so has the development of other types of software pests. These include: a certain file called “Trojan software ”. This is an application that appears to do something useful such as a computer game (which is why you installed it on to your computer in the first place) but whilst not in use it is doing something terribly wrong with your computer.
Now it is against the law to create viruses to other computers. • The law which covers this area is called The Computer Misuse Act . It also covers various computer crimes such as Hacking, computer fraud as well as the deliberate spread of viruses. Anyone caught creating viruses has to face consequences. Which is an unlimited fine and up to a five years in prison
Virus Hits WikipediaThe virus writers created a page on the German Wikipedia that linked to a fake fix for a new version of an old malicious Windows worm but instead of curing a bug, those installing the fix would be infected by a new Windows virus.The page on the German version of the online encyclopaedia has now been removed thankfully. Graham Cluley said "The very openness of websites like Wikipedia - which allow anyone to edit pages - makes them terrific, but can also make them less trustworthy,” senior technology consultant for Sophos. "In this case, the article in question wasn't just misleading, it was downright malicious." The page hijacked by the virus creators was about a new variant of the Windows Blaster worm. This malicious program debuted in 2003 and caught out many PC users. Included on the page was a link to a supposed patch that, once downloaded and installed, would protect against this new version. However, anyone installing this on a Windows machine would infect themselves with a virus. The malicious hackers behind the fake article then sent out a German-language spam e-mail with a message crafted to look like it came from Wikipedia. The message directed people to the web page and the fake fix.
Fake FBI virus catches net users A Windows virus that warns users about illegal net use is spreading online. The bug-bearing message claims to come from either the FBI, CIA or German BKA police agency. It warns users they have been detected visiting illegal sites. Those opening a questionnaire attached to the message will be infected by a variant of the well-known Sober virus. The virus travels in an e-mail message with the subject line of "You visit illegal websites" or "Your IP was logged". The Windows virus started circulating on 22 November and mail filtering firm MessageLabs said it caught almost three million copies of the Sober variant in the first 24 hours of the outbreak. By the end of Wednesday Postini said it had netted more than seven million copies of the bug.
Staying Safe With Antivirus For a long time anti-virus software has been in the front line when it comes to stopping malicious programs infecting PCs. But as the creators of viruses and other malicious programs adapt their methods to exploit the weaknesses of anti-virus software, some are looking to other methods to help them stay safe. One such is Brent Rickels, the one-man IT department for the First National Bank of Bosque County in Texas, who has thrown out his anti-virus software and has a much quieter life as a result. "I just wanted to be able to sleep at night," he said explaining the decision to stop using anti-virus. "There had to be something better by now," Mr Rickels told the BBC News website. "Anti-virus is such a reactive model." "The bad guys out there have copies of Symantec and Trend Micro and all of the anti-virus software and are using it to develop their stuff on and get their stuff past it," he said.
