Date:
Dear Sir or Madam,
The purpose of this letter is to inform you that you have sent a hoax virus to my computer. In the future please do not send any emails to me. For your information, the name of the hoax virus message you sent was ___________________________. Please be informed that I have a site I can access which provides legitimate information on viruses, etc. I have enclosed the site below for your use if you wish. If I receive another hoax virus from you I will report it to the site below.
Respectfully,
A Law Abiding E-Mail User
SLM521
Viruses (Elective 6)
Richard McFarland
November 5, 2005
Virus Tip Sheet
In the modern world of computers today potentially harmful programs can attach themselves to your computer and reek havoc upon your system. These harmful programs come in several forms. If you use a computer today, you need to know what they are and how to protect your system from them. This tip sheet will provide you with some helpful information on this important issue.
Viruses
A virus is a computer program that piggybacks on a legitimate program and executes when the infected program runs. A virus infects a program, clones itself and looks for new host programs to infect. Thus viruses try to multiply and spread to as many programs and computers as possible. Virus programs can be very small requiring only a few lines of code to exist. Viruses can invade your computer attached to a legitimate program or can be embedded in an email.
There are other destructive programs that also can do harm to your system.
A worm is a small piece of software constructed to infiltrate a system through a hole in security which can alter or destroy data. A worm has the ability to copy itself from machine to machine.
Trojan Horses
A Trojan Horse is a destructive program that disguises itself as a legitimate piece of software. Trojan Horses do not replicate themselves but they can be extremely destructive to you system.
Logic Bombs
A Logic Bomb program is a program which is designed to activate at a particular date and time. Logic Bombs can lie dormant in your system until they activate and then do great damage. Because they are designed in this way they are difficult to detect.
Hoax Viruses
A Hoax Virus is virus spread by email that contains bogus information usually designed to frighten or mislead the recipient. Often they can be ignored as they are fairly benign.
Ways to Protect Your System
The best way to protect your system is to not download software from any source unless you know it is virus clean.
You should load Anti-Virus software and Firewall software on your system and run them routinely. They will scan your system and locate and remove most viruses.
Always be careful using your computer and be on the watch for viruses.
Below is a link you can use to access and download protection software.
