Virus Protection

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Purpose

This page is intended to help faculty and students with the prevention of computer viruses. This page covers some of the more important aspects of computer viruses. However, some information might be missing because of the broad span of the subject. As distance learning participants, the instructors and the students alike should be aware of the risk of computer viruses.

Distance learning involves sharing, uploading, and downloading software that, when infected with viruses, could be harmful to an entire system. Therefore, some simple actions can be taken in order to prevent computer viruses and other forms of destructive software.

Contents

• What is a computer virus?
• Where do viruses come from?
• How can my disk or computer get infected?
• What can I do to keep my system safe?
• I always an run anti-virus program, am I safe?
• What is the diagnosis for a viral infection?
• What can computer viruses do?
• I see some weird things happening on my computer, is it too late?
• How many virus exists out there and what are they?
• Where can I find more information on computer viruses?

What is a computer virus?

• A computer virus is a computer program that is designed to replicate itself by copying itself into the other programs stored in a computer. It may be benign or have a negative effect, such as causing a program to operate incorrectly or corrupting a computer's memory.
• Note that any program needs only to multiply itself in order to be considered a virus.
• The virus program carries a set of instructions that trigger them to activate by an unknown variable. For example, some viruses are triggered on a specific day, or at a certian time.
• A computer virus is a computer program, just like any other. However, it has the ability to do nasty things. Most computer viruses can copy themselves into different software when a executable program is running.
• The term computer virus came from the analogy of a biological virus. Like a biological virus, a computer virus has activation and the replication processes. The activation process depends on the type of virus, but usually it takes place when a host program is running. A host program is a larger program in which the virus has resided.
• The replication process occurs right after the activation. It is in the replication process that the virus "looks" for other host programs or copies itself to the system disk or diskette being used.

Where do viruses come from?

Since a virus is just a computer program, a virus can be produced by anyone that has some computer programming knowledge. Usually virus are engineered by three distinct classes of people.

1. People who have distorted ideas of what is right and what is wrong.
2. People who look for vengeance when not satisfied with their job or have lost their job.
3. People who want to test their programming ability and have nothing better to do.

How can my disk or computer get infected?

A hypothetical situation would best explain one of the most common form of viral infection:

• Your distance learning Sociology instructor or student was "surfing" the net and found a very good informative piece of software that can be used for class. He decided to download the software and put on his home page without first scanning it for viruses. The next day he announced to all the distance learning participants that they should try to use the software.
• Next, all of his students downloaded the software and installed it on their home computers.
• After installing and running the software at home, some of the students typed a spread sheet or report saved it to a disk and to took it to the lab.
• As you can see, if the software downloaded by the instructor was infected by any kind of virus, all of the students' computers, including the lab's, would be now infected. ( Remember that most viruses do not manifest themselves until duplicated.)

What can I do to keep my system safe?

Because different types of viruses are constantly being engineered, there is no way of keeping any system 100% safe. The good news, however, is that you can take a few, easy steps to prevent almost all common viruses.

1. Keep backup files of all your important data.
2. Scan your disks and your system periodically with an efficient anti-virus program
3. NEVER assume the software you are downloading is safe, even if the file comes from a instructor or organization.
4. NEVER run a executable program, if you have not previously scanned it for viruses. Some viruses manifest themselves as interactive programs, and may even ask you to do all the work (TROJAN).
5. When sending your files to another student or instructor, remind him or her to scan the files for viruses.
6. Scan all the software you download before putting iton your computer.

I always an run anti-virus program, am I safe?

Sorry, but no. You are certainly preventing a lot of harm, but keep in mind that new viruses are being created on a daily basis. So, there is a possibility that you get a virus yet unknown to your anti-virus program and the program won't be able to alert you. Many anti-virus programs do offer updates which can be periodically downloaded to keep your program is current. It is reccomended to update weekly.

What is the diagnosis for a viral infection?

This depends on the type of virus your computer comes down with. There are a wide variety of viruses: some can manifest themselves by dropping the letters you type from the top of the screen to the bottom; others display a diversity of colors on the screen, emit weird sounds, or display messages on the screen. Remember that viruses also might not activate themselves until your computer has been shut down, in which case you may not be able to turn it back on again.

What can computer viruses do?

Usually a virus is assigned to do single tasks, such as deleting non-system dependent files or programs (the files used to power self-installed programs), deleting system files (files that your computer needs in order to function as a computer), renaming files, altering files, or displaying graphics.

I see some weird things happening on my computer, is it too late?

• NO! The best thing to do is to turn off your computer as soon as you detect something wrong. DON'T try to fix it yourself! Then, get a bootable system disk which has a virus program and boot your computer with it.
• A system disk is a disk that carries all the core programs needed to start up the interaction between the hardware and the software of your computer. You can obtain such a disk from a local computer lab, such as UCF's Computer Store in the student union.
• After the anti-virus program is run, it should tell you what kind of virus was detected and if it was removed. If this doesn't happen, you should try another anti-virus program.
• Once everything is back to normal, get all your disks and virus scan them with the anti-virus program. This will ensure you that your disks are not infected and that it is safe for you to use them.
• Announce to all you friends and faculty that your computer detected a virus, and, if possible, give them the name of the detected virus. Some viruses programs name themselves, others are named by the anti-virus program.

How many viruses exist out there and what are they?

Because of the daily increase of viruses, the number is unknown. What you should know is that as they increase, they also become smarter and harder to detect, so always compute with utmost care.

Where can I find more information on computer viruses?

Some excellent virus information can be found at The Symantec Anti-Virus Center which has a very good FAQ.

You can also look at leading anti-virus programs from:

Norton
McAfee
Webroot
PC Tools