computer viruses

[van]

Please be advised,Mcaffee anti-vrus co. yesterday discovered a new virus that is starting to make it's rounds.DO NOT OPEN any email that reads POST CARD,Mcaffee has discovered this yesterday and is working to develope a cure for this,as of this morning there is none. The virus suposedly attaches it's self to the hard drive(C:drive zero sector)and will destroy the drive,it also will attach it's self to every one in your address and contacts book and will spread rapidly to every one you know!

please be aware of any email's that you recieve,we have norton ati-virus for our computer and have not seen any mail containing such virus' as of yet but will be on the look out for it as well as any new soft ware to combat this virus and will keep the board informed of any.

Keep in mind that this virus was discovered only yesterday Wed Nov 19,2008 and recieved this warning myself from Cheryl's IT staff so beware

God bless and have a safe and bitchin bus DAY

[van]

Dale,maybe if ya get a chance to research this threat and elabarate(spellcheck)on this new virus so far as any advise or any other precautions we should take to protect our computers.Man this scares the you know what out of me ,we just bought a new comp ,last one took a dive cause of another virus that snuck in(mauware)under the wire .tanx bro

[Songman]

Van

I will look into it. The best thing I can say to anyone is to always make sure your virus definitions are up-to-date and don't open any attachments from anyone you don't know (**See note below). There is another bad virus going around that is attached to a message that appears to be from FedEx or UPS or some other package company. It says that "your package could not be delivered". Then there is an attachment it wants you to open to get the details. As long as you don't open the attachment, you will not get infected.

And let me say this to put people at ease. While a virus can damage your files and be an all around annoyance, it cannot destroy your computer or any hardware. A virus is just a program. It can delete or modify files to do what it wants to do but it can't physically harm your hardware. Van, if your earlier computer was damaged by a virus, a good reformat of the hard drive would have put you right back in business. So the smart man keeps backups of any important files just in case.

Here are the big 3 advice I give for virus fighting.
1) Keep a good anti-virus going with up-to-date definitions.
- The new hot kid on the market is NOD32 by ESET. Much better than Norton or McAfee.
2) Don't open attachments from people you don't know.
**And if the attachment looks suspicious, still don't open it if even if you know the sender. If the sender has a virus, it could be the virus sending you the attachment.
3) Keep backups of important files just in case.
- Even if you don't get a virus, sometimes hard drives just die.

Hope this helps. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

[Songman]

1. What is a computer virus?
A computer virus is a program designed to spread itself by first infecting
executable files or the system areas of hard and floppy disks and then
making copies of itself. Viruses usually operate without the knowledge or
desire of the computer user.

2. What kind of files can spread viruses?
Viruses have the potential to infect any type of executable code, not just
the files that are commonly called 'program files'. For example, some
viruses infect executable code in the boot sector of floppy disks or in
system areas of hard drives. Another type of virus, known as a 'macro'
virus, can infect word processing and spreadsheet documents that use
macros. And it's possible for HTML documents containing JavaScript or other
types of executable code to spread viruses or other malicious code.

Since virus code must be executed to have any effect, files that the
computer treats as pure data are safe. This includes graphics and sound
files such as .gif, .jpg, .mp3, .wav, etc., as well as plain text in .txt
files. For example, just viewing picture files won't infect your computer
with a virus. The virus code has to be in a form, such as an .exe program
file or a Word .doc file, that the computer will actually try to execute.

3. How do viruses spread?
When you execute program code that's infected by a virus, the virus code
will also run and try to infect other programs, either on the same computer
or on other computers connected to it over a network . And the newly
infected programs will try to infect yet more programs.

When you share a copy of an infected file with other computer users,
running the file may also infect their computers; and files from those
computers may spread the infection to yet more computers.

If your computer is infected with a boot sector virus, the virus tries to
write copies of itself to the system areas of floppy disks and hard disks.
Then the infected floppy disks may infect other computers that boot from
them, and the virus copy on the hard disk will try to infect still more
floppies.

Some viruses, known as 'multipartite' viruses, can spread both by infecting
files and by infecting the boot areas of floppy disks.

4. What do viruses do to computers?
Viruses are software programs, and they can do the same things as any other
programs running on a computer. The actual effect of any particular virus
depends on how it was programmed by the person who wrote the virus.

Some viruses are deliberately designed to damage files or otherwise
interfere with your computer's operation, while others don't do anything but
try to spread themselves around. But even the ones that just spread
themselves are harmful, since they damage files and may cause other problems
in the process of spreading.

Note that viruses can't do any damage to hardware: they won't melt down your
CPU, burn out your hard drive, cause your monitor to explode, etc. Warnings
about viruses that will physically destroy your computer are usually hoaxes,
not legitimate virus warnings.

5. What is a Trojan horse program?
A type of program that is often confused with viruses is a 'Trojan horse'
program. This is not a virus, but simply a program (often harmful) that
pretends to be something else.

For example, you might download what you think is a new game; but when you
run it, it deletes files on your hard drive. Or the third time you start
the game, the program E-mails your saved passwords to another person.

Note: simply downloading a file to your computer won't activate a virus or
Trojan horse; you have to execute the code in the file to trigger it. This
could mean running a program file, or opening a Word/Excel document in a
program (such as Word or Excel) that can execute any macros in the document.

6. What's the story on viruses and E-mail?
You can't get a virus just by reading a plain-text E-mail message or Usenet
post. What you have to watch out for are encoded messages containing
embedded executable code (i.e., JavaScript in an HTML message) or messages
that include an executable file attachment (i.e., an encoded program file or
a Word document containing macros).

In order to activate a virus or Trojan horse program, your computer has to
execute some type of code. This could be a program attached to an E-mail, a
Word document you downloaded from the Internet, or something received on a
floppy disk. There's no special hazard in files attached to Usenet posts or
E-mail messages: they're no more dangerous than any other file.

7. What can I do to reduce the chance of getting viruses from E-mail?
Treat any file attachments that might contain executable code as carefully
as you would any other new files: save the attachment to disk and then check
it with an up-to-date virus scanner before opening the file.

If your E-mail or news software has the ability to automatically execute
JavaScript, Word macros, or other executable code contained in or attached
to a message, I strongly recommend that you disable this feature.

My personal feeling is that if an executable file shows up unexpectedly
attached to an E-mail, you should delete it unless you can positively
verify what it is, who it came from, and why it was sent to you.

The recent outbreak of the Melissa virus was a vivid demonstration of the
need to be extremely careful when you receive E-mail with attached files or
documents. Just because an E-mail appears to come from someone you trust,
this does NOT mean the file is safe or that the supposed sender had anything
to do with it.

[van]

Whew!,thats a mouth full(say that 10 times fast)to say the least.Dale you are the bomb when it comes to any thing that has to do with comp's thanks for the lesson . I've learned more about computers in the last 6 months than I have in the last 10 years,so watch for the magical exec in any E-mail attachment got it and thanks again for xplainin virus' .Man that stuff still scares the you know what out of me ,now I'm gonna have night mares tonight (honey where's the bottle)

[Dreamscape]

I just don't open anything that looks supsicous or I don't know who it's from. The tech guys at my home office always send out emails when a new virus pops up. They haven't gotten me yet!

[Kentucky Steve]

Fox News yesterday, reported about a virus that seemed to be shuting down the pentagon computers and then I heard nothing else. Anyone else hear what come of it. Sure raised my eyebrows as I figured they would have the best anti-virus protection out there.