“OMG! Did you hear about that April Fools Day anti virus, Conficker. Am I protected from that?” I’ve heard this question or something like it at least a dozen times today and my answer was the same every time. What have YOU done to protect yourself.
Let me start by saying from what I’ve seen, the conficker virus that was featured in a CBS news story today is no better or worse than the rest of the virus’ that have been around infecting computers for the past 5 years. For those who missed the news, conficker is a worm that will turn your computer into a zombie, doing more or less whatever its creator wants it to do, usually send out spam.
While I admit I am not a typical computer user, I don’t think its all to hard to avoid these problems with some simple common sense and a little thought about what you are doing and what you expect your computer to do in response. And before anybody makes any comment about Apple computers being “immune” to viruses, save your breath. You are not immune either so pay attention.
First, and this is so obvious I hate to put it to paper, but get an anti virus program. If you are a home user (IE, your computer is in your house) then you have some free options at your disposal. To keep things simple, I generally only recommend AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. It is far and away the most popular of the free anti virus applications. It is a simple, but thorough anti virus application, exactly what you need in your home. And unless you still use Dial-Up Internet any modern broadband Internet uses a service called NAT and a network masquerading that keeps your computer hidden on the Internet like a firewall would.
If your a corporate user, chances are you already have anti-virus on your computer, and a full hardware firewall and if you don’t you should call your IT department to ask them what they are getting paid for. Don’t have a support department? Find a local consultant group (like Airtop) that can get you on track.
So that covers the first base, but is probably the least important part. The next portion of safe computing is all about you, and your computer habits. I don’t mean to say you have to be paranoid all the time, but pay attention to whats going on. One of the more mischievous tricks I’ve seen lately (related to the Vundo virus) creates a web site that mimics a scan of your computer (it’s basically a pre-recorded video) telling you that you have some number of viruses and should download their “free anti virus software” to get rid of them. In this case, the program it wants your to download IS THE VIRUS. If you just pause and think about what you are doing before you panic you likely will realize that on your own. You should get to know your anti virus program. Know what its called so that when a window pops up and claims you have a virus, you know if its legitimate or a farce.
While “think before you click” more or less covers everything I want to point out that there is one area of the dark underbelly of computing that nobody talks about but nearly everybody knows about. Peer to Peer sharing is a means of sharing data between multiple people anonymously and is synonymous with applications like Napster, Limewire, Bearshare and others. This is a lurking beast in the peer to peer system though. If you have one of these programs just un-install it. There is little you can do with it that’s legal anyway, and likely nothing you’ve done with it was such. But the bigger problem is that its full of more viruses than a Chicago alley of hookers and crack addicts. If you do a search for anything, you’ll notice that nearly immediately you get 5 or so results with names that match what you searched for (go ahead and try it, I’ll wait). I would venture to guess that every one of those initial results is a virus with a name that’s dynamically created to match your search results in the hope you download it. But even the results that take longer can, and often are, viruses that people have knowingly, or unknowingly downloaded and now are sharing out into the P2P networks. Coupled with the legal implications of using the P2P networks with the higher than normal chance of doing something dumb just make theses programs a cesspit that I personally want no part of.
If you think you already have a virus or you know you do I typically use the trial version of a tool called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to do a full scan of the machine for anything and everything unwanted. As soon as the scan is done, and you’ve removed anything that was there, you still need to install an active anti virus program like I recommended above.
In summary, get anti virus software and think before you click. I remove viruses from clients computers on an almost daily basis and nearly every time they either didn’t have any software to protect them and/or they did something they realized was dumb when it was to late to go back. Finally, don’t let old ladies on CBS scare you away from using your computer. Its a machine like your car, take care of it and it’ll serve you reliably for a long time.