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Being a healthy person, I scoffed at the idea of getting a flu shot. I figured
that becoming a parent means I'm not allowed to get sick and my immune system
knows it. This winter, I caught a virus that knocked me flat for two weeks. I'm
fine now, but I'd still be recovering if my computer had been down for that
long.
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Computer viruses are nothing to scoff at. Viruses can mail themselves to
everyone in your address book, wipe out your hard drive, give your credit card
number and passwords to "zombie masters," attack other computers using your
address, and host illicit websites on your computer.
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A nasty family of viruses called W32.Klez is going around these days. The Klez
can disable your computer, attack anti-virus software, and mail themselves out
to everyone in your address book, but with a twist. Klez spoofs addresses.
It picks an address at random from your address book and pretends to have been
sent from that address. This makes Klez hard to track and sparks a lot of
unproductive dialogue between victims.
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Okay, so what is a virus? In simple terms, a virus is any application that you
never asked for that makes your computer do things that you would never want it
to do.
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What should you do about computer viruses? To quote Benjamin Franklin, "an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
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Install an anti-virus program, yesterday and update it weekly. While there are
many fine commercial products available, there are also free, equally effective
anti-virus programs.
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Never open an email attachment that you weren't expecting. Delete the message
at once. It doesn't matter if it claims to be from your mother or the Prime
Minister. If the attachment is genuine, you can always get them to send it
again. It is crucial to realize that email viruses masquerade as letters from
friends. They never have a subject like: "Malicious File from a Stranger," even
though that's exactly what they are.
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At the risk of having Bill Gates and company knock on my door: don't use
Outlook or Outlook Express for email. Email viruses exploit any one of many
holes in the security of these two programs. There are free mail applications
which work as well or better without the vulnerability of Outlook. [Since this article was written, Microsoft has fixed these vulnerabilities -ed.]
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Install a firewall. A firewall monitors and restricts the flow of information
to and from your computer over your internet connection. Zombie masters are
powerless if they cannot access your computer through the internet. The best
firewall on the market is free for private use.
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If you think you have a virus, disconnect your computer from all networks,
including the internet. Use a friend's machine to search for a cure.
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Find out more about viruses.
