How To Identify A Computer Virus

Establishing the difference between Viruses.

It’s easy to become busy these days and forget about the simple things that have the potential of leaving us vulnerable to our own devices later down the track.

Before we talk about how to prevent a virus I would like to cover what a virus is and the various types of viruses.

Defining a Computer Virus.

A virus is a piece of software that is installed onto your computer directly or from another piece of software’s installation. A virus usually can manipulate your computer into doing illegal and potentially harmful things for the benefit of the person who infected you.

Usually a computer virus is spread by mass spam emails, infected illegal downloads or even from some websites. A lot of the times the virus will be disguised as something funny or legitimate that the user can’t help but click on leading them to infect their machine.

Usually once a user has been infected with a virus they require the services of a virus removal expert to clean and reinstall the devices operating system.

Trojan Horse.

Trojan horses are typically found embedded inside a legitimate piece of software like a trial installation of software, a ringtone for your cell phone, or perhaps even a “free download” you have found on the internet. Once installed the trojan horse gives the hacker access to your computer to perform illegal and harmful actives.

Worm.

A worm is typically a piece of computer code that spread within your computer from email attachment, greeting cards or other methods as mentioned above. Once inside the computer the worm scans for things like address books and credit card details. Generally, a worm is not as harmful to the computer as a trojan horse. However, the risk is still great as your data is under the eyes of the hacker and generally you will notice the performance of your machine slow right down.

Spyware.

Whilst not overly harmful to your computer this one is still a very nasty thing to have on your machine as it can collect your personal information and habits and send them back to the hacker. Occasionally you will see your browser redirect to spam websites and other advertising. Generally, most people know they have spyware installed

Rogue Security Software.

This is one of the most common ones that we frequently see people paying big bucks to find out exactly what happened. Majority of the time people will be on the internet browsing and will see a message that they have become infected with a virus and need to download a scanner to fix it right away. Problem is that scanner is a malicious piece of software that can appear as a security application whilst bringing your beloved device to its knees. It’s very important to have an anti-virus software installed so you don’t need to ever even be tempted to click on these adverts.

Virus Prevention.

Believe it or not Microsoft actually supply an out of the box anti-virus tool free to use for all Windows customers. However, we find that the protection it proved is not quite as good as it could be. Our recommendation for all home and business users is ESET Security. This provides multi-layer support for both your files and your browser.

Keeping Safe.

Once you have your chosen anti-virus system its incredibly important that not only keep it up to date but that you perform regular scans. Whilst most applications have real time monitoring as pick up on things straight away its good for peace of mind knowing that every Sunday or whichever day you pick your computer will give your that glorious message that there have been no infected items found.