What is virus and how to protect?

Answer 1

A Virus is a self replicating program which has the ability to duplicate and transfer itself to other computers.

The great grandaddy of all viruses, the Boot sector virus executes itself by infecting the start up processes of a computer. These type of viruses are now considered dinosaurs of the computer age. However recently they had a revival due to the self executing nature of usb memory sticks. This has been resolved in part by motherboard manufacturers switching the feature off as a default.

A Worm is a virus which has the ability to transfer itself across a network to a target machine.

A Trojan is a malicious program which uses a legitimate program to hide in to be transported. A RAT (Remote Access Trojan) is the type which most people are familiar with which allows an attacker to take complete control of a target machine. these types of malicious programs do not self replicate so therefore they are not considered true viruses however they are generalised into the same category by the public.

Bots are networks of infected computers with a form of RAT on them which operate as a swarm. The Bot program is designed to run applications and provide proxy services for criminals. Generally these are used to send SPAM.

Root kits (Known in the late 1990's as Device Driver Trojans) are RATS which have the ability to superceed the operating system and therefore can cloak themselves against detection by applications and the operating system istself.

SpyWare is software which is designed to report back to its creators your activity on the internet.

There are lots more virus/Trojan/Spyware variants which are beyond the scope of this article.

ScareWare

Again not really a virus but a method of getting a user to install malicious software. Scareware will normally report a condition which frightens the user into installing or purchasing a program. It's a social manipulation ploy, not a program itself.

For instance a website may offer to scan your computer for viruses then find hundreds on a previously clean machine. It will then offer to clean these viruses if you just download the tool to do so. Of course the took is usually malicious and in some cases is used to blackmail the user into parting with money to clear the fault.

Antivirus

Antivirus solutions are used to detect and remove viruses,spyware and trojans. They do this using a couple of methods.

The Signature file method

Each program on a computer is made from instructions which are represented as numbers. Take a big enough sample of these numbers and you can cross compare the 'signature' with an unknown file byte by byte until a match (or not) with the sample is achieved.

Hueristic analysis

Hueristics are used to identify unknown types of virus. It does this by not looking at what the file is but at what it does. For instance, a screen saver program is highly unlikely to attempt to erase the hard drive on the computer in its first few lines of code, but a virus might. Or a Trojan might want to open a port to "Phone Home". These activities can be scored and the result can be filtered by a 'sensitivity control' set by the programmer or the user.

Expert opinion votes the best method of preventing infection by malicious programs is to get 'NetWise'. Make sure that you have a functioning antivirus solution from a reputable company. Take a look at your browsing habits.

Criminals favour websites that are highly popular or contain information which will reduce the users resistance to installing their malicious software. Ilegal Peer to peer sharing systems, hacker websites, and porn sites are all favourite targets for criminals who use virus techniques to steal credit card information or proxy machines for further criminal activities.

Avoid these types of websites and file transfers and your reduce the overall risk of becoming infected with a virus.

Answer 2

als je dephnie in haar kont neukt krijg je gelijk de cholera. ze is een vieze stinkende fatsige bastige kut snol

you go to the interweb and search something inappropriate then keep clicking on the links and soon you will have a virus. to prevent this you should install a antivirus programme suchas kaspersky AVG or norton