Computer Viruses BITE!

Computer viruses can be a nightmare. Some can wipe out all of the information on a computer’s hard drive, steal your credit card details, replicate and send themselves to other computers and a whole lot more.

If you've never had a machine fall victim to a computer virus, you may wonder what the fuss is about. But the concern is understandable -- according to Consumer Reports, computer viruses helped contribute to £4.25 billion in consumer losses in 2008. Computer viruses are just one kind of online threat, but they're arguably the best known of the bunch.

Computer viruses have been around for many years. In fact, in 1949, a scientist named John von Neumann theorized that a self-replicated program was possible. The computer industry wasn't even a decade old, and already someone had figured out how to throw a monkey wrench into the figurative gears. But it took a few decades before programmers known as hackers began to build computer viruses.

While some pranksters created virus-like programs for large computer systems, it was really the introduction of the personal computer that brought computer viruses to the public's attention. A doctoral student named Fred Cohen was the first to describe self-replicating programs designed to modify computers as viruses. The name has stuck ever since.

In the good old days (i.e., the early 1980s), viruses depended on humans to do the hard work of spreading the virus to other computers. A hacker would save the virus to disks and then distribute the disks to other people. It wasn't until modems became common that virus transmission became a real problem. Today when we think of a computer virus, we usually imagine something that transmits itself via the Internet. It might infect computers through e-mail messages or corrupted Web links. Programs like these can spread much faster than the earliest computer viruses.

I have had numerous call outs in recent weeks to tackle a recent virus. It disguises itself as an ‘Anti Virus’ program that looks and acts like you would expect Windows to. It hounds and harasses you, asking for money, slowing your machine down and quite critically, sending information to someone anonymous in Portugal. I have had to remove this virus 6 times in 2 weeks from peoples machines.

This type of attack IS avoidable! You can take a few simple steps to prevent this happening to you.

1. Make sure you have Anti Virus software installed, like AVG, available free, and most importantly UP TO DATE!

2. Ensure you have active and up to date Anti Spyware on your system. A good program to use would be Spyware Doctor, available for free from Google.

If you’re ever unsure of what to do, or suspect that your computer may have fallen prey to a virus or malicious software, act now! Visit www.homehelpdesk.co.uk, I can offer you friendly, impartial and expert advice on what to do next.