Big, Bad, Nasty Viruses!! There EVERYWHERE!!!

I'm sorry I haven't' posted anything lately. I'm sure the 3 people that read this blog are completely devastated, but it couldn't be avoided.

A few days ago while looking for pictures to put into one of my Facebook albums I managed to also down load a virus. The 'Antivirus Live' virus to be exact. I can tell you that this is one nasty little creature. It effects almost everything on your computer and will effect the way you use Internet Explorer and is almost impossible to get rid of.

Wikipedia says, "A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability." Not only can the virus copy itself to another computer, it can also be written to copy itself to other programs on the same computer. So once it gets in, it can literally destroy everything stored on your computer. AND if you try to transfer files from one computer to another via a USB storage devise, you will most likely take the virus with you.

"Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. Worms and Trojans, like viruses, may cause harm to either a computer system's hosted data, functional performance, or networking throughput, when they are executed. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or go unnoticed." (Wikipedia) So a 'virus' is purposely written to cause damage. It's done ON PURPOSE!!! Why? What possible thrill can come from destroying some one's computer? People have their memories and careers and lives on computers now a days. Why destroy that? Do these 'program writers' not have memories of there own? And if I may quote The Smirking Cat, "If you are smart enough to write programs to destroy, why not use that knowledge for something that actually does some GOOD?!?!?" (see why I'm with her?)

In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs. If a user attempts to launch an infected program, the virus' code may be executed simultaneously. Viruses can be divided into two types based on their behavior when they are executed. Nonresident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected, infect those targets, and finally transfer control to the application program they infected. Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are started. Instead, a resident virus loads itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.

Some viruses can do whats called a "self modification". That means that the virus will change it's 'signature' or code to each item it has infected. When your antivirus program scans what you are trying to down load, it will not recognize the signature.

Although most viruses are hard to detect, they are not impossible to stop. Make sure that your antivirus program updates itself regularly. There are a lot of free antivirus programs out there but most of them don't catch the threat until it has already entered your system. Make sure you check out the antivirus program you have and keep it up to date.

There are ways to protect your computer even if you do get a virus. A bit of preventive maintenance, if you will. Make sure that you do a system back up regularly. If a virus does get in you can do a System Restore (only on Windows, I think) and it will usually remove the virus atomically. Some times you will still have to re-install some programs, but that is better than replacing the entire computer. As for me, I am still trying to remove every last bit of the virus. I have another computer so I am back up and running. And believe me, I am looking for a good antivirus program as we speak.

I hope this information helped someone. And please, be careful where you click your mouse, you don't know where its been.