Protecting Your Computer from Viruses

Types of Electronic Infection

· Viruses – Viruses must be attached to some other program such as word documents and spreadsheets. Each time you run that program, the virus runs as well. Then it able to duplicate itself and infect your computer. This type of infection can get into your computer when you download infected programs and files from web sites or e-mail attachments.

· E-mail Viruses – These viruses are transferred through e-mail. They work by tapping into your e-mail address book and automatically sending more infected e-mails to people in your address book.

· Worms – Worms travel through computer networks. They look for a security hole that will allow them to infect and new computer. Once in a new machine, worms continue to replicate and search for next security hole they can use.

· Trojan Horses – A Trojan horse is a computer program that claim to be something it is not. You might think it is a game, but when you run it, the program infects your computer. This type of infection does not replicate itself.

Ways to Protect Your Computer

· Buy virus protection software

· Stay away from programs from unknown sources

· Use software from commercially purchased CDs

· Disable floppy disk booting

· Turn on macro virus protection on all Microsoft applications

· Check what type of file an e-mail attachment is before downloading it. Watch out for files that end with exe, com, or vbs. Once opened, these files can do a lot of damage if they are infected.

· Make sure that floppy disks you use and write protected, then scan them for viruses.

· Routinely scan your computer for viruses. Trend Micro provides free scanning for viruses over the internet at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/.

· Back up important data in case of infection

Virus Page

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