A virus, with love
Summary Description The love bug was big news, but how much do you really know about viruses? Newswire's 5 Minute Guides looks at the facts behind the headlines.
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Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore

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Editorial InformationArticle Location http://www.newswire.com.au/0005/5mg19.htm
Article Topic 5 Minute Guides
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Story Group 000521
Post Date 19/05/2000 09:40 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon Vandore on 17/05/2000 08:33 PM


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What is a computer virus?
A computer virus is a small program written with mischievous or malicious intentions, designed to replicate by attaching copies of itself to files or disks. Many viruses also have a 'payload' or something they cause to happen -- anything from an annoying message popping up on your screen, to the deletion of everything on your hard drive.
The most widespread viruses today are 'macro' viruses which abuse the macro languages built into productivity software such as Microsoft Office. The most famous macro virus is Melissa, which exploited the relationship between Microsoft Word and the Exchange/Outlook email client, emailing itself to the first 50 people or mailing lists in the user's address book when the document was opened in Word. The recent love bug worm was even worse, because it emailed itself to every entry in the user's address book, clogging up mail servers across the globe.
What are the other types of virus?
The term 'virus' now covers a range of rogue programs, such as worms which propagate themselves across networks and Trojan horses, which are designed to make a system vulnerable to other forms of attack. A recent worm known as ExploreZip alters various system files in Windows and installs itself as a program which runs all the time, sending itself to address book entries and deleting all files created by Microsoft products. The scariest Trojan of recent times is Back Orifice 2000, which opens up the user's system to remote access by others across the Internet.
How bad can a virus get?
Obviously you cannot personally be infected (unless you're a robot) and a virus cannot travel to your washing machine or hair dryer. Most viruses only affect a particular operating system or program. Because most people use PCs running Microsoft Windows and Microsoft applications, most viruses are targeted at that combination.
The worst virus type currently in circulation can 'flash' garbage instructions into a computer's BIOS chip (replacing the PC's start-up instructions), rendering the machine useless until the BIOS chip is replaced. Most of these are variants on Win95.CIH, which attempts to overwrite part of the hard disk and the BIOS on the 26th day of some or all months.
How can I protect myself against computer viruses?
The antivirus software companies will tell you the only means of protection is regular scanning with their packages. It's true that investing in good antivirus software is a sensible precaution, but you must commit to regularly updating the program's virus definition database, as most packages rely on a list of virus types and signatures which they use to track down suspect files. Updated virus definition tables, with information on the latest crop of viruses, are always available from your antivirus company's Web site.
However, antivirus programs are notorious memory hogs and slow down your system. The best way to protect your computer is to use common sense. Never open documents or program files downloaded or received in emails without scanning them first. You can identify these by their file extensions -- a program file on a PC usually ends in EXE or COM. A Microsoft Word document has the extension DOC and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet ends with XLS.
The extension of a filename determines how Windows treats it. The ending of the file distributed by the love bug was VBS, short for Visual Basic Script (a type of programming language), which identified it as a set of instructions to be followed by Windows. By changing the ending to TXT, so that Windows treats it as a text file and opens it in Notepad instead of running it, the file would be safe to view. Be wary of files from non-trusted sources.
I received an email warning me of a terrible new virus. Is it true?
Virus hoaxes are a big problem on the Internet. They are a form of virus in their own right, because people read them and copy the message to their friends. Fake warnings often speak of an email with a particular subject line which will destroy your system 'simply by opening the message'. This is impossible, as the threat comes not from the text of an email, but from any infected file attachments -- you have to actually run the file attachment of an email virus to get infected. Hoaxes also like to tell you to 'send this message to everyone you know'. If the warning was real, you wouldn't need this encouragement! Be careful of what you forward, because propagating a hoax can be just as embarrassing as sending someone a real virus.
Where can I find more information?
Details on computer viruses (and hoaxes) affecting Australia can be found at the following Web sites:
http://www.symantec.com.au/region/reg_ap/avcenter/
http://www.vet.com.au/html/vvcc/anti-virus/zoo/


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Bulletin Summary5 Minute Guides: A virus, with love
The love bug was big news, but how much do you really know about viruses? Newswire's 5 Minute Guides looks at the facts behind the headlines.

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5 Minute Guides: A virus, with love

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