How Viruses Contaminate Your Computer

Viruses are little bits of software that normally have a negative impact on our computers when they are activated. Usually viruses are attached onto other software programs (games, disk utilities, office documents/Macros, screen-savers), and are activated when these normally harmless programs are started. A virus is inactive until the infected program is run or an infected boot record on a floppy/CD is read. When the virus is activated it loads into your computer's memory where it can perform its nasty job or spread itself to other programs on your system or computers in your network. Floppy disks used in an infected system (or CD-Roms/DVDs burned on an infected system) can then carry the virus to another machine. Programs downloaded from USENET, or file-sharing programs (Kazaa, Morpheus, Limewire etc.) can also spread a virus. More frequently now, email is also becoming a favourite way to spread viruses, Trojan horses and especially internet worms. It should be made clear, that USENET and file-sharing programs do not create viruses or infected files in any way. It is certain anti-social people who create viruses, and then use these services to spread the infected files to other users on the system. This is very similar to cars and highways in that Ford, Toyota or the highway makers do not cause traffic accidents, it is the idiot who got drunk and then drove who causes a 14 car pileup. Of course if there weren't cars or highways there wouldn't be an accident... then again, the idiot would still be getting smashed and driving his horse-carriage into the store window. When you get a virus on your computer, it can erase everything that you have on your hard drive. Each virus is different - some of them come up as strange messages on your screen, while others just work at eroding the files on the computer. A virus just doesn't appear in your computer - you have to put them there, usually by running program from the Internet that contain viruses. They sometimes come from attachments in emails. It is possible that an email from a friend could contain a virus if that person's computer is infected. With anti-virus software installed on your computer, this will tell you whether or not it is safe to open the email with a message such as "No virus detected in incoming mail: When you do get a virus through programs or mail, it hides in your computer and when you save data in the computer, you also save the virus. Then it starts to infect all the other files in your computer. When you send files to a friend or co-worker, you also send the virus to his/her computer. After a while the virus starts to crowd the data in your files and causes major problems with the system, such that you may not even be able to open important documents or you may not be able to open any of the programs on the computer. The virus won't affect the memory of your computer, but it will affect any disks that you use to save your work.

Are You Safe From Hackers?

We don't use E-gold very often since most of our online business and customer sales are conducted through our online merchant account. However, we occasionally have someone who will request paying by E-gold so we keep an account there for this reason. Once a month or so we withdraw the funds and decided to do so yesterday. Imagine our dismay when we logged into our E-gold account yesterday and found our balance to be a big fat ZERO! We had checked the balance just a few days ago so we knew this was not correct. After investigating the history of the account, we found that a spend had been made to another e-gold account user WITHOUT our knowledge or authorization. We had been hacked!

Since we have up to date anti-virus and firewall software on our computer, we assumed we were safe. Not so! It seems this is not enough to keep away the hackers as the software does not prevent "Spyware" from being installed on your computer.

"Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and literally "spies" on your activities. The spying can range from relatively harmless use of cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data then gets relayed to the person who put the software on your computer.

Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different ways.

First, it rides along with software you download from the 'Net and install on your system.

Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses) and automatically install themselves on your computer when you open the email message.

Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use the "back door" to install basically anything they want.

And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct physical access to your computer such as an employer, suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who wants to know exactly what you're doing.

So how do you protect yourself against these malicious hackers? You need a program that specifically scans your system for the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along with the new ones appearing daily.

Below are two programs which specifically check for and remove spyware from your system:

"Spybot Search & Destroy" - http://www.safer-networking.org
"Ad Aware" - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

You may have spyware lurking on your computer right now so protect yourself today by downloading one of the above programs!

As a point of reference, we contacted E-gold and informed them that we had been hacked. We provided them with the account number of the person who received the funds and asked for a contact e-mail address on the person. E-gold informed us that they could not provide that information without a "court order" and that basically there was no way of getting the money back!

Take action today to protect yourself from this growing threat! The bottom line is: - Keep your anti-virus program current

- Install a firewall
- Carefully screen software before installing it
- Scan specifically for spyware weekly
- Stay current on this growing threat.

Anti Virus, Protect Yourself

There are so many great things about the internet you know that there is going to be problems. And there are! Identity theft, fraud, and maybe the largest most problematic is the epidemic of computer viruses that are wreaking havoc. These viruses are different scripts (if you can call them that) written for purposes of destruction. It is the classic "minority of trouble makers ruining it for the vast majority of the rest of us." So what sorts of viruses do we worry about and get anti virus programs for.

Well, there are all sorts of different kinds of virus-type things traveling around in cyber space and require the protection of an anti virus tool. Examples include worms, spiders, spyware, and adware. They have a variety of effects ranging from pure destruction to actually taking sensitive information off of a computer's hard drive.

Spyware is an example of the latter effect. It is designed to come in via the internet (usually involves a download of some sort) and to search through the hard drive looking for sensitive and profitable information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and online preferences, and search or surf histories. The potential for badness with these is very real and very worth getting protection in the form of anti virus software tool for.


Anyway, as you may or may not know, there has been a new revolution of security (anti virus) software in response to this new demand for online security. This software ranges widely in both price and effectiveness. The software also generally offers both "treatment" and prevention of computer viral infections. That is to say that there is usually a scanning feature offered that is able to detect old infestations and to either quarantine them or sometimes it can actually repair the damage. The other feature then is to disallow new infestations. This prevention is accomplished with daily scanning of anything new, for example downloads or email, and warning user of anything suspicious and recommending action.

My recommendation is to get a more well known software package and be willing to spend a bit, because after all "you pay for what you get." Good bets are the anti virus software tools that are sold in computer, office supply, or electronic stores. You want to look and make sure that it has an automatic on line updates that allow your protection to stay as up-to-date as possible.

How To Keep Your Computer From Spreading Viruses

There are some simple steps you must take to avoid becoming a victim of computer viruses and also stop from spreading viruses to others. Here are some things that you can and should do.
Email Issues to watch

Never open an E-mail with an attachment you were not expecting.

The latest batch of virus programs are often spread by E-mail. Even if your anti-virus program does not warn you about the attached file and even if the eMail appears to come from someone you know, do not open it if you were not expecting it, and if you were expecting it, only open it AFTER scanning it with your up-to-date virus software.

Scan ALL incoming email attachments (regardless of who sent it).

Be sure to run each attachment you plan to open through the anti-virus check. Do this even if you recognize and trust the sender; malicious code, like Trojan horses, can slip into your system by appearing to be from a friendly source.
Turn off the 'automatic preview' in your email program.

Automatically previewing an email message has the exact same effect as opening and reading an email. My of the newest internet worms, trojans, and viruses simply need to have an email message read in order for them to be activated. Turning off the preview feature allows you to scan any email BEFORE you actually read it.

Disk Issues to watch

Don't boot from a floppy disk.

Floppies are one of the most common ways viruses are transmitted. If you are using a floppy while working on your computer, remove it when you shut the machine off or the computer will automatically try to boot from the floppy, perhaps launching any viruses on the disk.

Web Based Issues

Keep your web browser set to its highest security level.

Its a pain to get the warning messages on every other web page you visit, but its the best way to protect yourself - especially if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook.

Don't download programs from the Web.

Unreliable sources such as Internet newsgroups or Web sites that you haven't heard of may be willing providers of viruses for your computer. Avoid downloading files you can't be sure are safe. This includes freeware, screensavers, games, and any other executable program - any files with an ".exe" or ".com" extension, such as "coolgame.exe." Check to see if the site has anti-virus software running on their side. If you do have to download from the Internet, be sure to scan each program before running it. Save all downloads to one folder, then run virus checks on everything in the folder before using it. Regardless of where you download from, ALWAYS scan downloaded software.

Routine Maintenance

Make regular back ups of important data

Make it a habit to back up all of your most important files at least once a month. Store the back up discs in a safe place.

Clean any virus/worm/trojan off your computer
(Details: http://www.antivirus-report.com/trojan-horse-removal.html )

Using your antivirus software, perform a full system scan of your PC, hopefully it will detect and remove the virus. If a virus was detected, restart your computer and run the full scan again. Sometime the virus will keep reappearing, due to the evolving nature of viruses. Symantec is particularly fast at providing removal tools should you ever get a virus or worm infesting your computer.

What is a removal tool? Well simply put it is a simple software that will scan your computer for infections, and then remove them from your machine. You most often need this if your machine got infected BEFORE you installed antivirus software.

Top Considerations for PC Protection

And the final and most important two things to do to keep your computer clean and make sure it does not spread viruses to other computers...

Install a Firewall

If you use a broadband/high-speed method to access the internet, you need to get a firewall. A firewall is a program that defends your computer from hackers who attempt to gain direct access to your computer over the Internet. There is a very good firewall program called ZoneAlarm that will do the trick if you use Windows.

Install and use a high-quality anti-virus program.

This is the key to protecting your computer. Buy one of the major anti-virus programs - Norton Anti-Virus, PC-Cillin, or McAfee Anti-Virus. The primary benefit of the commercial packages is the frequency and ease of updating the virus definition files that these programs use to detect viruses. With new viruses popping up all the time, unless your protection software is kept updated, you start to become ever more vulnerable to infection.

Get immediate protection.

Configure your anti-virus software to launch automatically on start-up and run at all times. This will provide you back-up protection in case you forget to scan an attachment, or decide not to. And in case you forget to load up your anti-virus software, configuring it to start by itself will ensure you get immediate protection anyway. The top antivirus software programs all do this (but only if you have one installed on your computer). You do have current antivirus software installed right? If not, you can go to this page for more information on why you need antivirus software and how easy it is to use.

How Safe Is Your Computer - You Be The Judge

Is your computer safe from a virus? You might say yes, but do you know that for sure. If you do not have anti virus protection installed you are leaving yourself susceptible to a computer virus. Trust me you do not want a virus on your computer. Depending on the virus it could cause some real damage to every aspect of your computer. A really harmful virus could completely disable your computer, causing the need for a new hard drive or even motherboard.

Your computer can become infected with a virus in a variety of different ways. Such as via email, downloads, or even hackers. Just visiting a certain website could give you a virus, if they have downloads that are unseen by the eyes. The only way to protect yourself from a potential harmful and costly computer virus is to install anti virus protection. This protection comes in the form of antivirus software.

This is the only way to protect your computer from being infected with a virus. What is great about some of this protection is that, thanks to the internet, you can find free antivirus software. Of course, not all anti virus scans are free, but great majorities of them are.

You may think that free antivirus software has only one function, to find and rid your computer of viruses. While this is one of their functions, in most cases it is not the only one. Many of the latest antivirus software come with many other features that can help protect your computer while you are using it. For example, not only will some find and eliminate the viruses already on your computer, but it will also monitor your computer from that point on blocking any viruses that are coming in. Most will scan your downloads and email to ensure your computer remains safe and virus-free.

Most of the free antivirus software also scans and eliminates instances of annoying adware and spyware. Both of these work to slow your computer down and make your time on the computer a whole lot less enjoyable with unwanted popups and advertisements. Your best defense from a virus is good, solid, and reputable antivirus software.

You can find software and anti virus scans all over the internet. It is wise to choose your anti virus protection based on recommendations from other users, ease of use, price, as well as reputation. By doing so you will protect yourself from a computer virus and enjoy safety and peace of mind during your internet travels.