Definitions of Viruses, Defined
an article by R Lipsky

If you operate a computer in this day and age, sooner or later you will come across bugs. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Whether it's a glitch in a program you use, a flaw in your operating system, or a virus intentionally put onto your system, you will face problems.

This, the first installment in a series of articles will focus on viruses, how to find them, how to remove them, and how to avoid them.

Viruses are man-made pieces of code designed specifically to mess with you and your system. When we use the phrase 'man-made' it almost always means boy-made. Virus authors and distributors are for the most part adolescent boys who have access to computers, the internet, and have little adult supervision.

These mischievous youths can find all the tools they need right on the internet. Prewritten viruses that they can send out with little or no effort, all just a mouse click and a download away. Tools to modify these viruses can be found at these same hacker websites.

The Viruses they send out for kicks can do anything from just being annoying to bringing down your entire operating system and destroying all your data. Some viruses allow users to gain access to your computer from the internet permitting the hacker to browse your files and steal your valuable information. Others can gain access to your email and personal information, like credit card numbers and passwords.

It becomes obvious why we must avoid contamination of our computers by these bits of malicious code. What is trickier if not impossible is the logistics of how to avoid these stealthy bugs.

Just a couple of years ago viruses could be avoided by not downloading anything from unsolicited sources. If someone sent you a download in an email that you didn't ask for, if you just simply deleted it, you avoided infection. If you did not download files on unknown websites, you were not vulnerable. Two years ago seems like a lifetime away.

Back then to update you antivirus utility was a 300K download. Today we are up to over 3 megabytes of data that it takes to update your antivirus software. The size of those files will never get any smaller and grow in size every month.

This is why virus definitions and antivirus software must be updated religiously. New viruses are found each and everyday, these files must then be incorporated into the virus definitions. The way that your antivirus software will find viruses on your system is if it is listed in the definitions on your machine. If a virus is not listed it cannot be found. Virus definitions need to be updated about every two to three weeks. This is the main purpose of your virus scanner and your front line of protection.

Frequently updating your definitions simply cannot be overlooked. We provide a web page to help keep your anti-virus application up-to-date.  It is located at:
 http://www.ComputerHelp911.com/
computerhelp911-antivirus-updates.html

...continued next month.

*Rich Lipsky is the owner and operator of ComputerHelp911.com, a local company that specializes in solving computer problems for local residents and businesses since 1995.
Rich is available for questions, or for
consultation. You can reach him at:

⁽³¹⁵⁾ 382 - HELP.