Computer Viruses and Hoaxes
Computer Viruses and Hoaxes: How To Protect Against Them There are over 30,000 known computer viruses and new viruses are being written every day. The number of computer hoaxes (lies) is not as high as the number of viruses, but for the many computer users, who may believe the false information, hoaxes can cause them a lot of emotion and wasted time. The hoaxes are annoying but, if the user can recognize them, can be easily deleted. It is the threat of a computer virus that is the most important to a user because no system is immune to a virus infection. There are methods for detecting a virus, eliminating it and protecting the system from further trouble. A computer virus is a piece of software designed to enter a system and infect the files. A virus will duplicate itself and try to infect as many files and systems as possible. If the hard disc is infected and the user saves a file to disk, it will probably infect the disk and will be passed on to other systems that use the infected disc. On the other way, if a virus-infected disk is introduced to the system, it will infect the system. ("What Is A Virus?" 1) There are four main types of computer viruses; boot sector, file or program, macro, and multipartite. T
The anti-virus software is only good for known viruses, so it is best to get software that can be updated. (Types of Viruses 2) There are other programs called "worms" or "Trojan horses" that are not viruses but have the same effect. Sometimes the infected files can be "cleaned" by the virus protection software, but often they must be deleted. Then there is the chain e-mail that threatens the user or the computer if the message is not passed on. The anti-virus software will identify any files that have been infected. Even when a virus is detected, there are solutions for cleaning and restoring the hard drive. Aside from introducing viruses through the system's applications, hard disc or floppy disc, there are other ways for the system to become infected. Expect to wait a long time for any of these to pay off" (CIAC 1). Bruce Stewart, gives some ways for a user to find out if a system has a virus: unusual messages or displays on your monitor, unusual sounds or music played at random times, your system has less available memory than it should, a disk or volume name has been changed, programs or files are suddenly missing, unknown programs or files have been created or some of your files become corrupted or suddenly don't work properly. Department of Energy, lists the most common hoaxes and suggests users ignore them. The macro viruses are the most common because they infect files run by applications that use macro languages (Microsoft Word or Excel). These threats come into the system, but are nothing more than hoaxes (lies) that are meant to upset system users. A user cannot be assured the system is totally protected because some viruses are introduced without his/her knowing it. After the user is sure the system is clean, a backup of the disc drive should be made. Macro viruses can exist inside any document whose application uses a macro language, such as the Melissa of a few years ago.
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