Malicious Code
Wolf in sheep's clothing
You've seen malicious code before, maybe on the news, from a friend, or even on your own computer. Malicious code
is software that intentionally causes problems or damages your computer. Viruses, worms, and Trojans are all included
under this term.
Here are a few rules to live by:
- THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK!
- Never, never open attachments unless you're expecting them
- If in doubt, email the sender and ask them what it's about
- Absolutely never download screen savers off the internet!
- Actually, think twice before downloading anything off the internet
- Internet downloads are the #1 culprit for infestations
- If you must download that cute kitten screen saver, run it through
a strong antivirus scanner before unzipping it
- Avoid .zip or .tar files
- Winzip isn't a bad program, but it's easy to include an innocuous little
file that activates the moment you unzip the file
- Most antivirus software doesn't scan inside of zip files when you download
Viruses
A virus is a malicious code that self-replicates. Thousands of new viruses are discovered monthly, and most antivirus
software is reactive: a virus must strike before update files are created and sent. The point is- don't always count on
your software to keep you safe. Practice smart computing and always be on your guard. Most virus infestations are invited into
computers- a friend emails you a 'cool' screen saver, which was sent by another virus on their computer. You trust this person
and open the attachment. You've just invited a virus into your playground. It gets to have fun running around corrupting, deleting,
or changing your files, and it has also just emailed itself out to everyone on your address book. Now it has more computers
to play with. Live the motto: Trust No One
Worms
Although like a virus, a worm is less destructive, but quite a bit more insidious. A worm will wriggle its way into your system,
without you noticing a thing, and quietly replicate in the dark recesses of your hard drive. You'll generally only notice a
worm when it replicates enough times to cause a significant drop in your computer resources. Suddenly your tiniest programs
will take ages to load, while a host of worm programs are running and sucking up processor speed. It'll take several hours, even
days, to ferret out and remove all traces of the infestation.
Trojans
Trojans find their way onto your system by posing as desirable programs. Remember what happened to Troy- they took in an
innocuous object and ended up inviting catastrophe into their city. Really idiotic of them, right? Well, just remember
them when you think of downloading that nifty spyware scanner that's free. You may end up with something that pretends
to scan your drive, but actually is serving a darker purpose. Instead of benignly scanning for spyware, it could be
sneakily deleting important files. Without some of those files, good luck in bringing that computer back up from a reboot.
Congratulations, you've just lost everything.
. : --- : : --- : .
|
