What do Swine flu and Conficker have in common?
Both are viruses.
Both got blown way out of proportion.
Or maybe not. As I described in my previous post, things run smoothly when people take appropriate measures to prevent potential hazards from getting out of control.
I’m not an expert in epidemiology, and while swine flu is still a potentially serious threat, it’s nowhere near as bad as it could have been. That’s partly because of swift action by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, and partly because the virus just isn’t that bad.
There the similarities end. Conficker had the potential to be very bad. And diligence on the part of the IT and user communities prevented a catastrophe.
But that’s jumping ahead. What exactly is a computer virus? Where do they come from? Why have they been foisted on the world?
In a nutshell, a computer virus is a program (a set of instructions) that has some undesirable effect on your computer.
(No, America Online 9.0 is not a computer virus. A virus has an intentionally undesirable effect on your computer.)
What sort of effects? Everything from wiping out your hard drive to turning your computer into a broadcast beacon, transmitting company and personal secrets to a central Asian republic formerly part of the Soviet Union and ending with “stan” (which was Conficker’s modus operendi). Some viruses, back in the old days, used to pop messages up on your screen and turn your computer off. There are many, many variations.
Where do they come from? Most viruses, believe it or not, are pranks created by teenagers trying to impress other teenagers. Viruses are easy to create – instructions and tools can be found on the Internet – and can wind up on your computer in many ways. Used to be that email was the preferred vector, and it still happens that a rogue attachment will be used to infect your PC.
But vulnerabilities in web browsers – made possible, in part, by our own insatiable greed for cooler content on websites, which requires the ability to embed programs in said sites – can also allow viruses onto your system, just by your visiting there. Welcome to the anti-Social.
Other viruses masquerade as useful programs – often promising to remove viruses, in a twisted irony – and executing these programs causes the virus to be activated. This subspecies is called a “Trojan Horse.”
Another makes its way from machine to machine on a local network or across the Internet, piggybacking on legitimate traffic. These are called “worms.”
And there are others.
How can viruses be stopped? Well, it has been said that all politics is local. Same is true for virus protection. Each computer on your network – server, PC, desktop or laptop, Windows, Mac, or Unix, needs to have an anti-virus program installed on it.
Anti-virus programs are available from a vast array of vendors. My personal preference, for home use, is AVG – especially the free version. Note that this is strictly anti-virus – you could buy a program that does many things (think Norton Internet Security) but I personally find these to be resource hogs. That means they slow down your system. Generally speaking, smaller more specialized programs are the way to go – they do what they do, and do it well, and are usually kinder to your system.
For businesses, AVG makes a paid version. There is a wide range of other packages, all suitable for the purpose. Again, choose a program that sticks to its knitting – good, solid, anti-virus protection. It doesn’t have to cost much.
Oh, find a package that has a centralized management capability. This will allow all the computers in your organization to be updated on a regular basis with virus definitions – these are what the anti-virus program uses to identify viruses that may be on your system. The advantage of doing this from a central location is that any update to your computers should be tested first. This approach catches potential problems before they develop. Centralized management allows you to control the deployment of updates, and keeps the client programs consistent and running smoothly.
There is no excuse for not practicing safe computing. The data you save could be your own – or your customers. Either way, you don’t want to take chances. It’s just not worth the risk.
