Hopefully you have been paying attention and have secured your network and run through the basic security tips that I’ve written about.
You haven’t?
Ok, in that case, I guess it is fortunate that there are ways to tell that your system has become infected with a virus.
If we’re lucky then your computer hasn’t been rendered quite as useless as the one in the photo above..yet.
If your pc is playing up and you are unsure whether it is due to a virus infection then read on…
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED WITH A VIRUS?
The following signs may indicate that you haven’t been paying enough attention to me and that your computer may be infected -
- You have to kick your computer to get it to keep up with you
- Your computer goes on strike, especially when you are trying to do something important
- Your computer reboots itself just as you start to watch your favourite por
- The unknown error messages you receive look weirder than normal
- Strangely, buggy software works properly for the first time ever
- Those pictures of naked women you try to print get stuck in the ether. Again.
5 TYPES OF COMPUTER VIRUS
If any of those symptoms sound familiar then there is good chance that you have downloaded or installed something you now wish you hadn’t.
There are, quite literally, millions of different types of gremlin that can affect your computer, be they viruses, trojans, worms or spyware, etc.
Here are 5 of the more common types of virus that are just itching to get acquainted with your system -
BOOT SECTOR VIRUSES
A boot sector virus affects a computer’s hard drive.
Historically, they also targeted floppy disks too, though hardly anyone uses them nowadays.
A hard drive is made up of platters which are further divided into sectors.
The first sector on a platter is known as the boot sector and contains the Master Boot Record (MBR).
The MBR is kind of like the brains of the hard drive, telling it how to load the operating system when the computer is switched on.
Therefore, if the Master Boot Record of a drive becomes infected with a virus, your whole system will become compromised and there is the chance that any writable media inserted into your system could also become infected too.
Boot sector viruses can be spread between computers by sharing disks, though this is less common now that floppy disks have been superseded.
Boot sector viruses can usually be cured or fixed with a good anti-virus program.
PROGRAM VIRUSES
A program virus is, perhaps, the most likely variant you will come across.
Typically, these will arrive either as email attachments, or as part of larger files downloaded from peer-to-peer networks.
More often than not, the virus will appear to be a genuine program with a file extension such as .bin, .com, .exe or .txt, though there are many other possibilities too.
Once the file has been opened the virus will become active and will typically replicate itself into other programs on your computer.
Once again, a good anti-virus program should protect you from such viruses.
CHAMELEON VIRUSES
Chameleon viruses, also known as polymorphic viruses, get their name because they are able to camouflage themselves by changing the way they appear.
What this means is that they change their virus signature every time they infect a new file.
This makes them harder to detect as anti-virus programs typically identify viruses by their unique signature.
MACRO VIRUSES
As you may gather from the name, a macro virus is programmed as a macro that is embedded into a document.
There are many applications that support macro languages and two of the more popular ones are Microsoft Word and Excel.
If your system becomes infected by a macro virus then it will find it’s way into every document you subsequently produce.
Macro viruses have been around for a while now but if your anti-virus package is more than a few years old then it may have trouble detecting them.
STEALTH VIRUSES
Somewhat like a chameleon virus, a stealth virus can disguise itself in order to try to avoid detection.
Such disguises include altering its file size and concealing itself in memory.
Stealth viruses are certainly not a new type of threat – the first instance of one was Pervade which was created in 1975.
A good anti-virus program should be more than capable of scanning both your hard drive and memory in order to root out stealth viruses.
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i hate virus of any kind
Don’t we all!
My favorite virus to get infected with is a polymorphic virus. They are really nasty and most antivirus programs don’t remove them correctly. To be virus free, I recommend to not use microsoft products
Your favourite?
eek!
I believe I read on one of your profiles somewhere that you either are, or were, a hacker at some time?
If that’s correct, have you ever created a virus Bobby?
“Your computer reboots itself just as you start to watch your favourite por”
I wonder how that sentence ends? lol
That pesky virus caused me to reboot at just the wrong time!