Part 3 Virus and Spyware Protection

This post was guest blogged by Scott Watson, remotebackupandrestore.com

Part 1 – General computer security
Part 2 – Passwords
Part 3 – Virus and spy-ware protection
Part 4 – Hardware
Part 5 – What’s your backup plan?

The last post covered the importance of your password, and how to create a good one.

This time, let’s talk about computer viruses and spy-ware.  Both of these can cause headaches, fits of rage, but most importantly, they can cause your computer to literally cease functioning.  If you’re like me and you rely on your computer for daily business functions and operations, this can be disasterous.  So, let’s briefly talk about what a virus is, and then we’ll explore spy-ware.

In it’s simplest form, a virus is a program.  According to Wikipedia, a virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes.  That’s putting it mildly.  Viruses can make many copies of themselves.  They can attach themselves to your regular programs, thus replacing the program with itself.  The new program may go on to open security holes on your computer, send itself to other computers on your network, eventually infecting your entire office.  At this point, it is possible that your entire office or enterprise could suffer a total computer outage, costing you time, money and possibly your business.

Fortunately, there are many programs available that can detect and eradicate the many varieties of viruses that are out there lurking.  Some programs, like McAfee or Symantec, are available for a reasonable price, while others like AVG and ClamWin are free.  Either way, having an anti-virus program on your PC and those on your network will save you a lot of anguish.

Another problem-causing entity that has come along in the years since the Internet and web browsers have arrived is called spy-ware.  Spy-ware is not a virus, but can cause similar frustration and loss of computer function.  Spy-ware is most often delivered to your computer through freeware programs or utilities that are downloaded from the Internet.  Spy-ware programs literally act as spies on your computer – watching your keystrokes, tracks the websites you visit and scan for certain files on your hard drive.  Why does it do this?  Spy-ware is designed to wait for and capture sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers and email addresses.  This opens the door for identity theft.  Once the author of the spy-ware has your identity, the information can be used to ruin your finances and more.  Spy-ware can be stopped much like viruses can be stopped.  There are a number of good products available that can minimize the infiltration of spy-ware.  One word of caution, though - beware of free spy-ware removal programs.  Sometimes they are carriers of spy-ware themselves!
 
One other term to become familiar with is ad-ware.  Ad-ware is similar to spy-ware in that it is usually delivered via the Internet.  Usually, ad-ware comes bundled in a free program downloaded from a website.  In my own household, I have seen ad-ware come from web toolbars (weather reporting toolbars, calendars, etc.), music player software, picture editing software and free music download sites.  Ad-ware appears innocent, coming in the form of advertisements that are embedded in the free programs or additional utilities that are bundled with your download. 

These are legitimate programs with limited capability, and usually a limited trial period.  They are far less harmful than a virus or spy-ware, but they have been known to spawn pop-up ads on your web browser if you happen to visit a site requested by ad-ware.  My advice is to use free programs cautiously, unless you’re using open source programs.

Next time: Power protection and conditioning

Remote Backup and Restore’s remote backup service can help protect your business by using your Internet connection to send copies of your critical data files to our off-site backup server every night. Scott Watson, remotebackupandrestore.com

Tim Somers
MichiganBusinessHub.com