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With the above disaster still fresh in my mind, I agreed, but only on condition that every flash-drive needed to be scanned first. Out of the twenty flash-drives presented only two were clean - the rest were all infected and two of them were so bad that my virus protector could not clean them.

This made me think: "Are we safe, or not? How big is the threat? Do we really understand the threats?"

In this article I am going to take a brief look at the different threats and how we can protect ourselves against them.

We often use the term "computer virus" erroneously when we refer to all types of malware, adware and spyware.

Malware, short for malicious software, is software that is designed to infiltrate your computer without your knowledge and this includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, most root kits, spyware, dishonest adware, crime ware and other malicious and unwanted software.

Computer viruses - A true computer virus is a programme that can copy itself and infect not only your computer, but also spread to other computers via emails, networks, internet, instant messages and storing devices like flash drives. This small piece of software typically piggybacks on other programmes or files, like word documents and excel files. Each time you open the file the virus runs.
The sole purpose of a virus is to cause havoc, damaging your data and sometime
crashing your computer hard drive.

E-mail viruses - An e-mail virus travels as an attachment to e-mail messages. It can replicate automatically by mailing itself to your e-mail address book. Some e-mail viruses can launch when you view the infected message in the preview pane of your e-mail software. 

Worms - A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.  

Trojan horses - A Trojan horse is simply a computer program that claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead hides a unwanted malware file that does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically. 

Root kits - One or more programs designed to obscure the fact that a system has been compromised. Contrary to what its name may imply, a root kit does not grant user administrator privileges, as it requires prior access to execute and tamper with system files and processes. 

Spyware - is installed on your computer without your knowledge and collects private information about you, your browsing and internet habits and even monitor your keystrokes. 

Adware or advertising-supported software - is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. Some of this software can also be spyware, intruding your privacy. 

Crime ware – is malware designed specifically to automate cybercrime like identity theft and accessing your financial information.

So, how do I know when my computer is infected?

 Some of the common symptoms are:

• The computer runs slower than usual.
• The computer stops responding, or it locks up frequently.
• The computer crashes, and then it restarts every a few minutes.
• The computer restarts on its own. In addition, the computer does not run as usual.
• Applications on the computer do not work correctly.
• Disks or disk drives are inaccessible.
• You cannot print items correctly.
• You see unusual error messages.
• You see distorted menus and dialog boxes.
• There is a double extension on an attachment that you recently opened, such as a .jpg, .vbs, .gif, or .exe extension.
• An antivirus program is disabled for no reason. In addition, the antivirus program cannot be restarted or updated.
• An antivirus program cannot be installed on the computer, or the antivirus program will not run.
• New icons appear on the desktop that you did not put there, or the icons are not associated with any recently installed programs.
• Strange sounds or music plays from the speakers unexpectedly.
• A program disappears from the computer, even though you did not intentionally remove the program.

Please Note: These are common signs of infection - these signs may also be caused by hardware or software problems that have nothing to do with a computer virus.

How can I protect myself? 

1. Make sure your computer runs anti-virus software. If not, buy and install it immediately.
   
   There are many anti-virus software on the market, we tested a couple and found the top three are very close to each other in terms of protection, cost and service.
   
   This is how “TopTenReviews” rank the top 10 anti-virus software products:
   
   
    

SATeacher entered into an agreement with BitDefender Antivirus to supply BitDefender Antivirus to schools at a discounted rate.

For more information on this offer or to order, please visit our website – click here.
 

2. Even if you have this software, it must be updated regularly, as new viruses appear daily. Configure the programs to automatically download updates, making it easy to stay protected. Otherwise, periodically download the updates manually.
   
   SATeacher will distribute the BitDefender updates to our NCS Members, using BitDefender, with our quarterly NCS eResource updates – especially for those that are not connected to the internet.
   
    
3. DO NOT OPEN an e-mail attachment unless you know who sent it. Even then, it's not totally safe, as a sneaky virus that has infected a friend's computer can access the e-mail address book, send a message to everyone, and attach itself. To be completely safe, scan the attachment with your anti-virus software BEFORE you open it.
   
    
4. If you receive a suspicious message, delete it immediately from your Inbox. When you delete a message, however, it's still on your system. Go into the Deleted Mail folder and delete the message again to permanently remove it from your computer.
   
   We set our mail client (Outlook) to download headers only – Any suspicious emails are deleted from our mail server even before we download it to our network.
   
    
5. Always scan storing devices like flash drives and portable hard drives before you use them. BitDefender will automatically scan a device, when it is attached to your computer. Otherwise you could select ‘Start’, ‘My Computer’ and then right-click on the device (e.g. Removable ……).  Then click on the anti-virus programme. It should scan and tell you when any viruses have been disinfected.
   
    
6. Regularly back up your files and store your backup off-site– if your system should become infected, you would not lose valuable data.

Source and further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/whatis.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/security/worms/whatis.aspx
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/37virus.htm

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