Symptoms of Virus Infection
Different viruses can affect a computer system in different ways. The impact of a computer virus infection can range from disruption in work by flashing messages on a computer screen to causing serious damages worth millions of dollars to an organization. In order to detect a virus attack on the computer, you must observe the computer for signs of changes or strange behaviour that may be symptoms of a virus attack. Some of the symptoms of virus infection are discussed below:
Protection of computer
Computer virus attacks have become one of the biggest threats to an organization. The organization spend large amount of money to prevent, detect and recover from computer virus attacks. The spread of computer virus infections can be stopped through the practice of safe computing. The following are a list of some recommendations for safe computing:
Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is a program designed to detect and remove viruses from computer system. Antivirus software is used to scan hard disks, floppy disks, and CDs for viruses. Antivirus software can also be used to scan e-mail messages and individual files downloaded from the Internet. Antivirus software always resides in the memory so that it detects the virus at the time of their entry and prevents them from doing any damage to the files or system. Some popular antivirus software available are: Norton Antivirus, McAfee Virus Scan. Antivirus software typically performs the following tasks:
Example: Norton Antivirus
Norton Antivirus is a product of Symantec Corporation that contains important information about preventing viruses from attacking the system, types of viruses and their attack method. Norton Antivirus, when loaded onto a computer system, checks the following areas for viruses:
To scan a disk for possible infection by a virus, do the following.
COMPUTER WORMS
A computer worm possesses some of the characteristic of viruses. But computer worm is not actually the computer virus. A computer worm operates entirely on its own. A worm replicates from a computer to another computer by spreading entire copies of itself instead of infecting files or operating systems. Typically, a worm spreads over e-mail and through other ways that computers exchange information over a network. In this way, a worm not only causes disorder on machines, but also clogs or blocks network connections and slow network traffic, so that it takes an excessive long time to load a Web page or send an e-mail.
TROJAN HORSE OR TROJAN
Unlike viruses and worms, a Trojan horse does not replicate. The name Trojan Horse was originated from the Greek mythology when Greek warriors hid inside a wooden horse and destroyed Troy in the dark, by appearing to be harmless. A Trojan Horse is a malicious program that pretends to be something interesting and harmless, such as a screen saver a or game. Thinking as a game or a screen saver, when you run it, it may format your hard disk or delete data or corrupt files.
Some Trojans, when loaded onto your machine, capture information from your system or allow someone else to control or seize your computer remotely.
DETECTION AND ELIMINATION
Anti-virus software, computer vaccine, is a program which is designed to detect and remove viruses, worms and Trojan horses from the computer system. It protects a computer system from being infected by the viruses, worms and Trojan horses. The antivirus software constantly monitors the computer system and as soon as they detect viruses, they inform the user about them. There are many antivirus software for detecting and eliminating different viruses. Some popular anti-virus software are:
Different viruses can affect a computer system in different ways. The impact of a computer virus infection can range from disruption in work by flashing messages on a computer screen to causing serious damages worth millions of dollars to an organization. In order to detect a virus attack on the computer, you must observe the computer for signs of changes or strange behaviour that may be symptoms of a virus attack. Some of the symptoms of virus infection are discussed below:
- Deletes the files or programs from the system.
- Decreases the space in the main memory.
- Appearance of strange message or strange patterns on the screen.
- Slows down the system performance.
- Increase the size of executable files.
- Frequent hanging of the system, that is the system stops functioning.
- Formatting the hard disk, thus destroying data.
- Unexpected messages or images are suddenly displayed.
- Missing of files or appearing of unexpected files.
- Displaying low memory message frequently.
- Programs start on suddenly.
- Unusual sounds or music played at random.
- Accessing of floppy disk drive occurs frequently without giving any instruction.
- CD-ROM drive mysteriously opens and closes.
- Hard drive is accessed too often (the light on your main unit flashes rapidly).
Protection of computer
Computer virus attacks have become one of the biggest threats to an organization. The organization spend large amount of money to prevent, detect and recover from computer virus attacks. The spread of computer virus infections can be stopped through the practice of safe computing. The following are a list of some recommendations for safe computing:
- Always check a floppy for viruses before using it. Ensure that the floppy is write protected when using it on a different machine.
- Ensure that your system boots through the hard disk first. Remove all floppies from the drive during boot-up.
- Install software from the original CD-ROM or floppy disks. If the originals are not available, scan the secondary media for viruses before installation.
- Do not load pirated software on your machine. The pirated software contain viruses.
- Ensure that the antivirus package scans all system and boot files at start-up.
- The automatic virus monitors should be running constantly on your system to ensure that no infected files are transferred to your hard disk over the network.
- Always scan files downloaded from the Internet or transferred over the network.
- Scan all e-mail attachments before executing them on your machine.
- Update virus definition file regularly for new viruses.
- Install the latest security patch programs.
Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is a program designed to detect and remove viruses from computer system. Antivirus software is used to scan hard disks, floppy disks, and CDs for viruses. Antivirus software can also be used to scan e-mail messages and individual files downloaded from the Internet. Antivirus software always resides in the memory so that it detects the virus at the time of their entry and prevents them from doing any damage to the files or system. Some popular antivirus software available are: Norton Antivirus, McAfee Virus Scan. Antivirus software typically performs the following tasks:
- Scans files and folders for viruses.
- Provides information when a virus is detected.
- Cleans virus-infected files
- Continuously monitors memory to protect the computer from memory-resident viruses.
Example: Norton Antivirus
Norton Antivirus is a product of Symantec Corporation that contains important information about preventing viruses from attacking the system, types of viruses and their attack method. Norton Antivirus, when loaded onto a computer system, checks the following areas for viruses:
- Boot records
- Programs at the time you you use them
- All local hard drives
- Files downloaded from the Internet
- Floppy disks when in use.
To scan a disk for possible infection by a virus, do the following.
- Initiate virus scans by opening the Norton Anti Virus main window.
- Select the Scan For Viruses option. The corresponding window will appears.
- Select a Scan Task from the list and click on the Scan Task from the list clicks on the scan option.
COMPUTER WORMS
A computer worm possesses some of the characteristic of viruses. But computer worm is not actually the computer virus. A computer worm operates entirely on its own. A worm replicates from a computer to another computer by spreading entire copies of itself instead of infecting files or operating systems. Typically, a worm spreads over e-mail and through other ways that computers exchange information over a network. In this way, a worm not only causes disorder on machines, but also clogs or blocks network connections and slow network traffic, so that it takes an excessive long time to load a Web page or send an e-mail.
TROJAN HORSE OR TROJAN
Unlike viruses and worms, a Trojan horse does not replicate. The name Trojan Horse was originated from the Greek mythology when Greek warriors hid inside a wooden horse and destroyed Troy in the dark, by appearing to be harmless. A Trojan Horse is a malicious program that pretends to be something interesting and harmless, such as a screen saver a or game. Thinking as a game or a screen saver, when you run it, it may format your hard disk or delete data or corrupt files.
Some Trojans, when loaded onto your machine, capture information from your system or allow someone else to control or seize your computer remotely.
DETECTION AND ELIMINATION
Anti-virus software, computer vaccine, is a program which is designed to detect and remove viruses, worms and Trojan horses from the computer system. It protects a computer system from being infected by the viruses, worms and Trojan horses. The antivirus software constantly monitors the computer system and as soon as they detect viruses, they inform the user about them. There are many antivirus software for detecting and eliminating different viruses. Some popular anti-virus software are:
- Norton Antivirus (NAV)
- McAfee’s Scan
- Kaspersky Anti-virus
- PC-Cillin
- F-prot
- AVG Anti-virus
- Panda Anti-virus
1 comments:
what do u think of Trend Micro Titanium 2013? How do we know what is a good effective antivirus?N intrnet security what the difference?
Post a Comment