Viruses 101
In the ever growing world of the Internet, and the way it is being used, brings out all the scrupulous people in droves vying to steal all your personal information. This includes social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account information, and birthdays. Some of these lowlifes want to even steal login and password information to online games you may play, so they can sell it. So welcome to Viruses 101.
Today I am going to help try to give everyone some education on Viruses, and some Virus prevention tips. If you didn’t already know, a virus is a program that is slipped into your PC, and alters the way the PC will behave. There are all different kinds of these programs written, and most of the time, each one is a little different than the other. Some take control of your whole PC, while other hide in the background just waiting for it’s turn to do whatever it’s been programed to target. There are also other things known as Trojan horses, these are pretty self-explanatory. They roll into your PC, via some route, hide inside just like the Romans, then it jumps out and attacks your PC, causing havoc and driving you crazy. The last one I want to mention, are key-loggers, and they are programs to capture your keystrokes and it relays that information back to the hacker, and then he has access to whatever you typed in.
One of the most common type most of us see, is the one where a message pops up and claims that there is a virus or Trojan horse on our PC. It says “Your infected with virus P347THX, and to remove it please click here”. It lets you believe that your actually infected with something, and that by clicking here will help you get rid of it. That is false!!! What it does is take you to a web page selling fake anti-virus software. Then if you purchase it, they have your credit card number and that’s all she wrote. Now you’ll find out next credit card statement that they’ve probably maxxed out your card. Even if you don’t believe that it’s legit, which it is not, you click the X to close the box, it just keeps popping up and popping up, it never goes away. Now you’ll have to take it to your local computer repair shop and have a professional remove it.
Now for my three preventative steps on avoiding viruses.
1. Do not open any e-Mail you don’t recognize. This means if you don’t recognize who is sending you the e-Mail don’t open it. Delete it right away and be done with it. If it was a legit e-Mail, the person sending it will either send you another from an address that you know, or they will mention it the next time they see you or talk to you on the phone and you can add their new contact information. Curiosity kills the cat every time!
2. Don’t download from untrustworthy places. Yes this means don’t get your mp3 from Freemp3.com or whatever places your getting them. This is an invitation to get yourself a virus. My suggestion, pay for your downloads from reputable places. Like iTunes or AmazonMP3 for songs. This goes for games, wallpaper, and anything else that can be downloaded.
3. Surf the web at only reputable places. Like yahoo.com, ESPN.com, CNN.com, facebook.com, etc. Blogs and Forums are safe places to venture to, but you stray to far away from that, and your only tempting fate. Steer clear of clicking on most ads, they can also take you to not so safe web sites, especially the ones that claim to give you free things, or a super deal of something. Remember if it seems to good to be true, it usually is.
Last thing I want to mention is anti-virus software. As an IT professional, I’m supposed to say to use it. I recommend not using it unless you really want to, and only use the free ones, like AVG. Do not pay for Norton or McAfee. They do not work very well, and they use up a lot of system resources which can slow down some PCs. Use this advice at your own discretion, but personally for my business or my home, I do not use these products.