All about Viruses
                                         Created December 27, 2003
                                          Updated 06 February 2004

Contents:
What is a virus?
How are viruses spread?
What harm do viruses do?
How do I protect my computer from viruses?
Where can I get virus protection?
How do I make the anti-virus protection most effective?
What do I do when the anti-virus software detects a virus?
What do I do when I receive an email warning of a virus?
How do I know if a warning is genuine?
What should I do with the message?
What should I do if I receive spam or porn?
What else can I do to protect my computer?
Where can I get more information about viruses?
Where are some useful sites to help me?

Please note: I am not distinguishing between viruses, worms, and other types of nasties here; I'm using the word 'virus' to mean all these various things. The purpose of this page is to educate on avoiding all kinds of unwanted invaders, and the information is generally the same for all.

What is a virus?
A computer virus is a program; it has been written by a person with the intention of causing problems to other computers. In general, they are designed to behave much like the viruses that cause diseases such as the common cold. They can spread themselves about, multiply, then spread themselves around some more and generally create havoc where-ever they go.

How are viruses spread?
A virus generally attaches itself to a file or email. It gets into a computer by opening that file or email. When it reaches a destination it replicates itself and spreads to other files and emails. If it is lucky it will be emailed to another address, where it can replicate and spread some more, and create more havoc. It can do this on its own, without you knowing what is happening.

What harm do viruses do?
Some viruses are malicious. This means that they are designed to do nasty things to the computers they've infected. They may delete files that you need; they may interfere with the running of your computer; they may even email themselves to everyone in your address book without you knowing about it.

How do I protect my computer from viruses?
The only way to protect your computer is to have anti-virus software on your computer and use it. It will not do any good if it is not updated regularly, or is not used properly.

Where can I get virus protection?
There are some free anti-virus programs available on the internet. One example is Trend Micro Housecall. This allows you to scan your computer, but it cannot be set to do so automatically, and you must be online while the scan runs. It does not check incoming emails and attachments.

Other free virus checking programs are listed at the end of this page.

Other anti-virus software is available for purchase at your local computer store. This type of software, installed on your computer, is what I talk about for the rest of this discussion.

How do I make the anti-virus protection most effective?
Once you have the software installed, it is important to keep it up-to-date. Find out how to update the virus definition files, and see if it can be set to update automatically. You should run this update as often as the software company updates its files, if you can find that information. If you can't find out, run the update at least once a week.  For maximum coverage, set your software to update daily, so any extra protection made available outside of the usual timeframe is picked up quickly.  If you here of a new virus threat in the news, update more often manually, to pick up any recent updates.

The software should be running all the time on your computer. Read the instructions to see how to make it scan your computer regularly (at least as often as you update the definitions) and scan all incoming emails and files. This will ensure that any viruses are caught before they do damage to your computer or are spread to another.

What do I do when the anti-virus software detects a virus?
Follow the instructions on your screen. The anti-virus programs I've seen first try to repair the infected file or email and then put it into quarantine if it can't be fixed.

What do I do when I receive an email warning of a virus?
Firstly, and most importantly, don't panic. There are two types of 'warnings' that I've come across.

1) genuine viruses; two scenarios:
a) If you already have effective virus protection in place it will pick up that virus as it comes in. The fact that you know the virus exists before it arrives at your computer will not help the anti-virus software work more effectively. At best, it may serve as a reminder to you to update your virus definitions, which you should be doing regularly anyway.

b) If you don't have effective anti-virus software running on your computer, knowing that the virus exists isn't going to stop it infecting your computer. Get protection installed immediately.

2) hoax warnings: These tell you about viruses that don't exist, and may give you bogus instructions on how to 'fix' your computer. One example of this tells you about a file with a teddy bear icon, with directions to delete the file. The file (called Jdbgmgr.exe) is a genuine file and belongs exactly where you found it. Do not delete it.

How do I know if a warning is genuine?
How do you tell if the 'warning' is genuine or not? By doing a little research. My favourite site for this is at Symantec's Anti-Virus Research Centre.  They have an encyclopaedia.  Using the search facility at that site you can search on details in the email that seem to be particular to that warning (eg a file name, or some other device like the teddy bear mentioned above). Read through the results to find the one that matches your 'warning'; when you find the right one there will be information about whether it is legitimate or not and what to do about it.

What should I do with the message?
Please do not pass these warnings on to your friends, do not send them,  or write that you've just received a virus, to the Guai-Support Group list; if you are having problems checking a warning out as described here, please contact Wendy for assistance and, when deemed necessary, she will send appropriate reports to the GG list. 

By passing on these warnings you are effectively sending a 'manual' virus that increases the volume of traffic on the internet and makes it work more slowly. They are, in my opinion, of more nuisance value (and potential harm) than spam emails trying to sell products that you will never want.

By all means point out to the friend that sent the message to you why they shouldn't have done so. As far as I've seen so far, these messages are passed on because the person didn't know any better; through education they will know there is no value in passing on the next one they receive.

Do not follow the instructions in a 'warning' email until you have researched the warning for yourself and you are certain it is genuine. Keep in mind that I have never seen a genuine 'warning' of this nature, and your anti-virus software should have picked up the virus if you actually had it. Chances are that 'warning' is a hoax.

What should I do if I receive spam or porn?
Report spam or porn emails to the appropriate addresses.  Do not reply to the message sender, this will only confirm for them that yours is a valid email address and they will keep sending unwanted emails to you. Find out what your ISP can do to help you if it continues to be a problem.

What else can I do to protect my computer?
- Do not open attachments to emails without scanning them for viruses first. Set your anti-virus software to do this automatically for the greatest level of protection possible.  Do not open attachments that you are not expecting, even if they are from someone you know.

- Read through the list of new emails before you start opening and reading them. Any addresses you don't recognise or look suspicious, look at them without opening them first. In Microsoft's Outlook Express, click with the right mouse button on the suspect email, then Properties; click on the Details tag then the Message Source button - this brings up the header and contents of the email; read through the information and decide if this is an email that you want to open normally or delete without opening. Other mail readers will have a similar feature; find out how to use it now before you need it.

- If your mail reader has a preview window, don't use it, turn it off. Opening an email in this window can be enough to alert a spammer that your address is legitimate and it can also be enough to unleash a virus into your computer.

- If you are using Microsoft's Outlook Express program to read your emails, and you are finding yourself the target of many viruses, consider changing to another mail reader. A large number of viruses are targeted at weaknesses in OE's programming. Other programs (such as Eudora and Netscape) may not be as vulnerable.

- If your Microsoft web browser prompts you to download patches from Microsoft, follow the instructions to do so. These patches are free corrections to the programming; some of them reduce your computer's vulnerability to attacks from viruses. You should have your Microsoft browser set to automatically look for the patches you need to download; click on Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab, then check the box "Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates".

Where can I get more information about viruses?

If you are interested in keeping a watchful eye on virus activity there are sites that can keep you informed. See Trend Micro Virus Report for details of activity and how to subscribe to their weekly update.

US-CERT (the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team) and the National Cyber Alert System has been established to provide timely information about current and emerging threats and vulnerabilities.  See Wired News and PC World for articles about this, and US-CERT for further information and signing up to the service.

Useful sites

Trend Micro:
PC-cillin Internet Security
Security Information:
Housecall - free online virus scanner:
Hoax Information
Weekly Virus Report:

McAfee:
Virus Information Library
Security Products
McAfee Virus Hoaxes
McAfee Free Online Virus Scan

Symantec:
Security Response
Virus Encyclopaedia
Norton Internet Security

Grisoft:
AVG Anti-Virus Products
Virus Encyclopaedia
Virus FAQ

RAV - Reliable Anti Virus
Free Online Scan and other products

If you need help to understand anything here please contact Wendy

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The information on this site is the property of the Guai-Support ListOwner Tesa Marcon: vashtii@optusnet.com.au  
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