Digital Survival - virus

FAQs: Computer viruses

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:46:04 +0000

How do I know if my computer has been infected with a virus?

If your anti-virus programme is working properly and its virus definitions are fully up to date, you will get a warning window, informing you of the existence of the virus and prompting you to take action. However, if you aren't so lucky, here is a list of things that should cause you to suspect that you have been infected:

Applications crash while using them
Programmes will not load what you start them
Your computer seems much slower than usual
You see the 'blue screen of death' when you are try to perform tasks
You can only start your computer in 'safe mode'
Accessing or downloading anything on the internet seems to take a really long time
Random pop-up ads suddenly appear on your desktop, even what you are not at your computer or surfing the internet
You receive complaints that you are sending infected e-mails (although this can sometimes be a result of spoofing).

What should I do if a virus infects a device such as an external drive?

Your anti-virus programme should be able to scan and clean the external device.

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Tip - Preventing virus infection

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:39:01 +0000

Be extremely cautious when opening email attachments. It is best to avoid opening any attachment received from an unknown source. If you need to do so, you should first save the attachment to a folder on your computer, then open the appropriate application (such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat) yourself. If you use the programme's File menu to open the attachment manually, rather than double-clicking the file or allowing your email programme to open it automatically, you are less likely to contract a virus.
Consider the possible risks before inserting removable media, such as CDs, DVDs and USB memory sticks, into your computer. You should first check that your anti-virus programme has the latest updates and that its scanner is running. It is also a good idea to disable your operating system's 'AutoPlay' feature, which can be used by viruses to infect your computer. Under Windows XP, this can be done by going inside My Computer, right-clicking on your CD or DVD drive, selecting Properties and clicking on the AutoPlay tab. For each content type, select the Take no action or Prompt me each time to choose an action options then click OK.
You can also help prevent some virus infections by switching to Free and Open Source software, which is often more secure, and which virus writers are less likely to target.

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Computer viruses

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:37:41 +0000

If you use a computer, the sad fact is that you need to know about computer viruses. There are many different ways to classify viruses, each with its own set of colourfully named categories. Worms, macroviruses, trojans and backdoors are some of the more well-known examples. Many of these viruses spread over the internet using email, malicious webpages or other means to infect unprotected computers. Others spread through removable media, particularly devices like USB memory sticks and external hard drives that allow users to write information as well as reading it. Viruses can destroy, damage or infect the information on your computer, including data on external drives. They can also take control of your computer and use it to attack other computers.
To protect yourself from these threats, you need to install an anti-virus application, and run it regularly. There are both proprietary and FOSS versions of these. If you buy a computer, it will probably not have anti-virus programmes pre-installed, so you need to decide which to use. Whichever you choose, ensure that it scans your computer for viruses as well as spyware. Some programmes combine the two functions, while others are separate. A good combination is the two open source applications: Avast anti-virus and Spybot anti-spyware.
You can find out more about these and download them free of charge in the Hands-on Guides in the Security in-a-box toolkit.

Avast: http://security.tacticaltech.org/avast_main
Spybot: http://security.tacticaltech.org/spybot_main

Internet café security note: If you're working in internet cafés you are not going to know if the computer you're working on is infected or not. That's why Avast virus cleaner has a portable application which you can run straight from your USB flash disk. You can download it from the Avast website here: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html

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