IT Security Blog

How to Prevent a Computer Virus New Tips

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Computer viruses are one of the most annoying problems of the modern digital age. Often created by computer coders with too much time on their hands, these bugs can be quite troublesome and can destroy valuable in

formation stored on your computer. There are a number of anti-virus software programs available to help you monitor any possible infection, but prevention is always better than the cure. There are a few ways you can make sure you lower your chances of contracting a computer virus. [Read more…]

Trying Out Anti-Virus Software Independently

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For each PC owner, there will be a preferred setting and software to use. It may depend on the impact and addition of processes or how they protect your computer from malicious intent stemming from viruses and spyware that are spread all over the web. But in the end, you may ask yourself which is the best among these anti-virus software solutions and which can really protect my computer from potent intrusion?

Seriously, there is no definite answer for this. We may see a lot of reviews and best ranked anti-virus software on the web but none of them guarantee 100% protection. Viruses and malware will always find a way and the degree of infection can start from minimal to dangerous at times.

While you can always rely on brand recall, depending on how you understand reviews and features that each software could give, trying them out one by one via their trialware options when you download and evaluation copy would be great. However, beware of some marketing gimmicks such as warning you of infections that may be dangerous to them yet minimal to others.

Anti-virus software selling is still a business and to get the nod of consumers, you have to impress them by showing them something. This is not to say that software companies are actually turning to these low way of marketing their product but why would you purchase an anti-virus software if you have nothing better to show than the price?

That is why you would be better of trying majority of these software programs. For sure you will know which are really needed and which are not.

Would You Download an Anti-Virus Freeware for Purchase?

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Getting hold of an anti-virus software these days is not as hard as before. Normally, you had to the nearest computer shop and ask around which best anti-virus software can keep your protected and then install it once you buy it outright. Through the years, software companies have allowed anyone to download their software, try it and then eventually be given the option to buy it. Some are even lucky enough when geniuses develop certain key generators to which they can crack the trialware into the full version. But all that seems checked now.

To date, there are still an abundant number of sites like forums that house such cracks and codes. Some of them work but not as plenty as before. Software companies have religiously sought to skim them one by one, blacklisting said codes to which makes freeloaders scratch their heads and continue to get a working key just to avoid a couple of dollars. Sadly, that is not as rampant as before.

If you think about it, this may only be the tip of the iceberg. Software companies may soon follow the cue of Microsoft in blacking out their screens if they are using pirated versions. If Microsoft can do it, then why not companies like McAfee or Norton? They are not small time companies and for sure, they have the funds to make it work like Bill Gates did.

Cheaters cannot complain and so do pirated users. So if that happens, it will all be due to the nature of being a cheapskate that did these people in.

Scan Storage Devices before Enabling

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Viruses and malware issues are far from being a thing of the past. On the contrary, they seem to grow large by numbers as each day passes. Thus the works of security software companies have their work cut out for them. There is not definite date to which such threats and intrusions would wholly be resolved.

Scanning Protocol

For the time being, it would be advisable for people to scan third party storage devices such as diskettes, USB drives and mobile storages to be safe and sound. These wandering viruses can attack at any time and this is a fact anywhere computer related materials are concerned.

Files can go as far as infecting the executable files, hence document, excel and compiled scripts are baits for immediate infection and malicious intrusions. Software applications also have their limits as their development teams cater only to a specific genre for known harmful files. But it is better to lower the risk of intrusion than not having protection at all.

[tags]scan, spyware, virus, infections, spyware, malware, trojans[/tags]

Malware, Viruses and other mutating threats on the rise

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malware.jpgThey are not only growing in numbers, but growing in complexity that they are en-likened to their real-life counterparts that mutate and give doctors and geneticists a hard time to treat. Major software developers mainly in the anti-virus/malware area have been finding it very difficult to remove and provide cures for the damage they do. This may be a sign of hard times to come when it comes to viruses and other forms of malware that have more than one instances in their databases. This has become so much of a danger that a single virus may have a hundred or so variants all having individual differences with the damage they cause rising exponentially. The initial discovery of a virus may be the first time it encounters virus detection experts who dissect them and find out how they work from the inside out allowing them to provide updates to already installed protection software allowing detection and removal. The instances when these software use the Quarantine facility is when the damage is too severe and cannot be repaired or that the software recognizes it but is not quite sure which one it is. That is why these software have facilities to submit these errant files to their rapid response centers where they are studied and feedback is sent back to you to show you what the infection was and what happened to your beloved file.

They might simply be code but they are evolving everyday and they are doing so in ever complex ways. The initial code might have little resemblance to their variants and so is the damage they cause. Advice for the millions of users out there, keep your anti-virus updated as much as possible, also keep your operating system updated which has updates released to correct vulnerabilities that are discovered and if you do not have an anti virus software installed, better get one or you might be surprised to see a lot of garbage on your hard disk where your hard earned documents and other vital files used to be leaving you crying your pants out in utter disgust sending you towards endless overtime to re-do all the stuff you lost. Get email you don’t know the sender or am not expecting don’t open it.

Remembering the I Love You Virus

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Valentines day is fast approaching and one has to recall the events that transpired when the “I Love You Virus” hit the Internet by storm and created havoc all over the world. To refresh memories, this is what the virus did in May, 2004:

I Love You Virus, Philippines

If you receive email with a subject line with the phrase ILOVEYOU (all one word, no spaces) in it… DON’T OPEN the attachment named Love-Letter-For-You.txt.vbs.

Over a five-hour period, during May 4, 2000, this virus spread across Asia, Europe and the United States via e-mail messages titled “ILOVEYOU.” The menace clogged Web servers, overwrote personal files and caused corporate IT managers to shut down e-mail systems. (taken from http://www.jrwhipple.com/virus_iloveyou.html).

Knowing that Valentines day is the day of hearts and I Love You’s, one has to think of this when it comes to the virus world. Only thing is, the virus does the exact opposite rather than help and provide affection to the workstations that it has penetrated.