| Anti Virus Software Basics.
The basic rules of virus avoidance are:
1. Keep your patches up-to-date,
2. Keep your anti virus software up-to-date and
3. Be cautious of attachments.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU DO GET A VIRUS
If it's activated immediately upon infection then it's too late. If not, it's most likely that it's triggered on a particular day.
Try to identify it. Make a note of the name of the virus in any alert you have received (or check the infected email for keywords, such as suspicious website URLs). Then research the virus. Get access to the internet. Use a pal's computer if need be. Do a search on the major antivirus companies' sites:
SYMANTEC:
http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html
SOPHOS:
http://www.sophos.com/search/
TREND:
http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/
McAFEE:
http://vil.mcafee.com/default.asp
Once you have installed an anti-virus software package, you should scan your entire PC.
Firewall programs are not strictly anti-virus software. They can prevent some kinds of virus infection, especially with 'always-on' high speed DSL or cable modem connections.
A popular freeware software is 'ZoneAlarm' .
Steve Gibson's site:
http://www.grc.com/
Mr Gibson's 'Shields Up' test can tell whether your computer and internet connection have security problems.
If you receive any message that asks you to forward it on to lots of other people, it's a hoax. Look them up on one of the scambuster web sites:
http://www.truthminers.com/truth/
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
http://www.breakthechain.org/
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
http://www.truthorfiction.com/
http://www.snopes.com/info/search/
http://UrbanLegends.MiningCo.com/ March. 2007.
I had some very sneaky spyware on my own laptop recently.
The following helped get rid of it: 1. Use Windows Start > Search to find files recently added to your
PC. Search for *.* and 'When was it modified?'.
If any look out of place or oddly named, that could be a clue. 2. Download the following utilities. They're free at the time of writing: - Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal - Spybot Search and Destroy - Spycatcher Express (It stops spyware operating.
It also caused my version of CounterStrike to stop working!) - HiJackThis (Version 1.99.1 only) - AVG Anti-Virus Free Between them they'll give a good clue as to where the nasties are, and will remove most of the basic ones. For a more persistent bug: 3. Search on its name in Google. There may be a special utility or instructions. 4. Boot your PC with your Windows XP installation disk. It has something called a 'Recovery Console'. This will let you use a limited set of DOS commands to delete files you're sure are bogus. Some Spyware runs constantly, therefore it can't be removed even in Windows 'Safe' mode. You have to get into a DOS session to get at it. In my case I had
to: - Boot into Safe mode (press F8 as your PC is booting up),
- Log on as Administrator
- Change the permissions on the nasty files by hand, (right click on them, 'Properties')
- Then boot up again to the Recovery Console to delete them. This may have been overkill, but it was educational.
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