Antivirus Software

By: Mike Ber

Nowadays more and more people are using a computer. A lot of
them use it at their work place, but an increasing number of
computer users have also discovered the need to have a computer
at home. At the same time the number of Internet surfers
increased. This is a good thing because people are realizing the
advantages offered by the world of technology. As soon as they
discover this, they start using computers and the Internet more
and more, but at the same time not considering the threats that
are coming in from all sides. They should know that if you don't
protect yourself, nobody will. These threats are now coming from
everywhere and they are growing in number and complexity. First
threats of this kind were the viruses. At first, viruses were
not that harmful. They were designed to perform a simple task,
like flashing a single message onto the user's computer screen.
Also the spread rate was slow, because not many people were
connected to the Internet. But now the majority of viruses are
programs intentionally written to obstruct with, or harm other
programs or computer systems. And they are spreading very fast.

Many companies and people have had a lot of troubles because of
these viruses. And so the need for antivirus software was born.
At first one very simple antivirus appeared and this was enough.
Now, as the threat is growing antivirus software are becoming a
lot more complex. Some of them have also included a firewall so
to better protect the users. In order to increase the
competition, other antivirus software producers have also come
up with a wonderful idea: to offer free scan online. This was a
big help for people that are frequently using a computer mostly
for their personal use, meaning it is not attached to a network
and uses the Internet only from time to time. Now, they don't
have to spend a lot of money to buy antivirus software that will
be used very rarely.

Most of these antivirus programs have to be bought in order for
you to use them at their full capacity. Also you have the option
to test a so called "free trial version". These trial versions
include all or most of the software's features, and are
available to be checked out by the user for a short period of
time, usually 30 days. After these 30 days, the program can no
longer be used. Other antivirus software producers use another
method; they offer a free trial version that you can keep
forever. But it is not fully operational, meaning some of the
options of the program cannot be used as they are not activated.
After you have tried a program and you consider it is fit for
your need, then you'll have to buy it to protect your computer
at its full capacity.

Lately, viruses are mostly spread through e-mails because this
is the most common use of the Internet. Also, e-mail viruses are
easier to develop. E-mail viruses make use of the ability of
having macros or scripts implanted in word documents,
spreadsheets, HTML pages, and are programmed to run when the
document is opened. But how does an e-mail virus works? When an
e-mail with an infected document or program is received, the
user unknowingly opens a document/program, which in turn
executes a code to open the e-mail directory and to send a copy
of itself as an e-mail attachment to a certain number of
addresses. Some of the recipients of the e-mail open its
attachment and the process repeats itself.

This is where the antivirus program comes in. This program is
set to check all incoming and outgoing messages and their
attachments. If an e-mail is detected to have a document or
program infected with a virus the program offers several
possibilities to deal with the threat: delete the e-mail, put it
in quarantine or try to disinfect it. Most of the times, these
choices are left to the user's decision. It is up to the user to
set the program in such manner to best fit his needs. But not
all viruses are coming by e-mail. A few of them use security
errors in the operating system or your Internet browser to be
launched automatically. But if you keep your antivirus and all
the other programs updated, there will be a small chance of
being infected via this route.

Nowadays, most viruses are spread in the form of e-mail
attachments. This is because some of the worst recent viruses
relay on recipients that throw away common sense and launch a
deadly e-mail attachment. Commonly the attachments are with
extensions that include .bat, .com, .exe, .pif, .scr, and .vbs.
Sometimes to avoid the filters of antivirus software, virus
creators enclose their malicious code in a .zip or .rar archive
file. The file might even have a password to full antivirus
programs that scan inside archives. And obviously, the password
is included in the message as an image for the convenience of
the naive user. As a simple but reliable rule, you should never
open an attachment that you didn't expect to receive, even if it
came from someone you know. Also, make sure your e-mail software
is configured so it will not automatically open attachments.

Another common way of spreading viruses is file sharing. Many
viruses spread themselves throughout open network shares. You
can protect your computer not sharing files or directories over
the network. But if you don't have a choice and you have to
share your files, you are still able to reduce the risk of being
infected by installing antivirus software and keeping it
updated. Other ways to become infected with viruses are
downloading files or software from the Internet, instant
messaging or even web pages.

If the file you are downloading or the computer you are
downloading it from is infected with a virus, there is a big
chance that your computer will also become infected with the
virus. As for the instant messaging, the major risk comes from
accepting files from other users on the network. This risk can
be minimized by configuring your antivirus software to scan all
incoming files and also configure your other programs not to
automatically accept files, and not to automatically execute the
files you accept. Certain viruses are known to infect web
servers. If you visit a website from an infected server, your
computer could be infected with the same virus, but this is a
very rare method of infection.

There are many different threats that are targeting the
computers. Although they are very different, all of them are
popularly called viruses. A virus by definition is a
self-replicating file, not considering whether it is malicious
or not. Another type of the so called viruses are worms; they
circulate mainly through e-mail but also spread through a
network. A worm is aware he is located in a network and uses it
for replicating itself. Trojan horses (or trojans) are mostly
used to insert some remote tools into a system in order to give
the attacker free access to that system, without the user's
knowledge. Most Trojan horses cannot replicate automatically.

With the increased number of Internet users, the existing
threats are also raising as now there are many more computers to
attack and more people that don't know to stay away from these
threats. But the antivirus software producers are making it
easier for us. There is a lot of antivirus software which cover
a lot of threats. All we have to do is install one.

About the author:
Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called
www.Every.ca He is also a contributing author to
www.ComputerMagazine.ca, www.Developer.ca, and www.XP.ca