Virii- Computer Virus Software Information

Introduction

My first experience of a virus program was back in 1989. A floppy disk was acting up a little. There was a slight delay while saving and loading files. "Interesting," I thought. "I wonder..." I had just received a new antivirus program from a public domain software library, so I decided to give it a go.

I had read about viruses. I was well aware of how they were transmitted, and avoided the usual vectors. No pirated software, ordering shareware only from libraries where disks were checked before being sent out.

But sure enough, there it was - a virus. Fortunately for me, it was a fairly harmless variant - no destructive payload. But where had it come from?

I started to work my way through an extensive collection of floppy disks while piecing together the pathway of the infection in search of how the program had first entered my system.

Eventually, I found the source - at about 2.30am, after several hours of virus scanning and removal. The program had been on the original write-protected master disks for a DTP program I had paid over $100 for. Because of that, the virus had been presen on all the data disks I had used for word-processing and graphics work for the past two years. Had it been a destructive virus, it could have been an expensive mistake.

I resolved then to keep to a maxim that has helped me stay safe ever since: Trust No-one! This level of cyber-paranoia has protected me from falling for the social engineering exploits favoured by email worm writers. But I'm far from complacent. and neither should you be.

Just a few precautions go a long way to protecting your system:

• Always download patches to your operating system and applications software as soon as it is available - and only download a patch from the vendor's website. Go there directly. Do not click on a link sent to you in an email.
• Always keep your antivirus software up to date. If necessary, get a second opinion on suspect files by using an online scan from another service.
• Always check attached files sent to you - and use common sense. If a friend apparently emails you an attachment, email them back and ask about it.
• Eliminate unneccesary risks wherever possible. Don't "borrow" software from people. Always thoroughly check disks given to you, don't take someone else's word for it - check it yourself!
• If you're always connected to the Internet, make sure you are working from behind a firewall. Otherwise, only connect to the Internet when you need to.

Articles

For those of you who are looking for additional information about virus infections, I will post a few more useful articles from different sources: