Viruses
A single virus infection has the possibility of making your computer unusable - a virus could wipe all of your data - a virus could seriously compromise your security, it could give people access to your bank account, it could give others your passwords. It could give others access to your computer and your confidential data!
If any of the above happened to you - what impact would it have on your business! If you were responsible for sending a virus to someone else's computer that caused one of the forgoing how would you feel?
If you do not have an anti virus program installed - or your anti virus software is old - or you use shareware anti virus software then it is quite probable that you have passed on viruses to others.
The full list of the latest and past virus threats to your computer can be found here http://securityresponse.symantec.com/
The following is just a very small sample of what a virus could do to your computer.
Backdoor.Krei is a backdoor Trojan that uses Trojan.Slanret to hide its malicious activities. Backdoor.Krei opens a listening port (port 449 by default) on the infected computer and it gives a hacker full access to the infected system.
Backdoor.Udps.10 is a typical backdoor Trojan that gives a remote
attacker full access to your computer. By default it listens for incoming
connections on ports 101 and 1700. The existence of the files udps.exe or
isatray.exe may indicate a possible infection.
JHC.1634 carries a destructive payload. If the virus is executed on June 17th, it attempts to overwrite with blank content any loaded and executed programs.
W97M.HashiBirth, also known as
Word97Macro/Opey.BF, is a Word 97 macro virus that infects Microsoft Word
documents and templates, as well as changes the appearance of Microsoft Word
documents. This virus displays date-specific messages and animated text in Word
documents.
W32.Bugbear@mm A mass-mailing worm. It
can also spread through network shares. It has keystroke-logging and backdoor
capabilities. The worm also attempts to terminate the processes of various
antivirus and firewall programs.
W32.Klez.H@mm
A mass-mailing worm. The worm overwrites files and creates hidden
copies of the originals. The worm then attempts to disable some common antivirus
products and has a payload which fills files with all zeroes.
VBS.Neiber.A@mm is a mass-mailing worm that sends itself to all addresses in the Microsoft Outlook Address Book.
The subject of the email is: Attention virus
There is no attachment. The worm is contained within the HTML body of the email message.
This little beauty will try and delete every file on your hard disk drive.
W32.HLLW.Bare
is a worm that spreads by using the KaZaA, Morpheus, eDonkey2000, and Bearshare file-sharing programs. It attempts to trick users into downloading and executing the malicious file by copying itself as many file names.
W32.HLLW.Yoohoo.C
is a worm that copies itself to the shared folders of the KaZaA, Bearshare, Morpheus, and eDonkey2000 file-sharing programs. It is written in the Borland Delphi programming language and may be compressed with UPX.
Also Known As: W32.HLLW.Spear, Worm.P2P.Spear [AVP]
IS YOUR COMPUTER INFECTED BY A VIRUS?
If you have anti virus software always make sure that the virus definitions are up to date!
It is important to check at least once a week that your virus definitions are up to date - open your anti virus program to check the "Virus Definitions" date. If they are more than one week old you need to immediately go to your anti virus softwares web site and download and install the update.
To protect others - do not use your e-mails address book - if you just can't live without it add the following address to it "0000000" including the quotation marks. It will stop many of the viruses that use your address book without your knowledge from sending itself to your friends.
To help protect yourself ask others not to include you in their address book.
If the data on your computer is important please make sure that you protect it at all times from viruses. DON'T LEARN THE HARD WAY.