According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2008, more than 75% of American households owned a computer. If the growth trend set by the previous years held true, easily 80% of all American households own a computer in 2010. For those that mean to reach Americans with less-than-pure intentions, reaching them through their computers would provide a very efficient vehicle.
Although computer viruses date back to 1971, the phrase computer virus went mainstream in 1984. By 1986, viruses hit personal computers and were largely spread by floppy disks. Remember those? Anti-virus software didn’t arrive until 1990. Up to that point, viruses were known to wipe out entire mainframes and some writers demanded payment for the removal of the virus they had written. In 1999, the author of a virus spread through Outlook was jailed for 20 months after causing over $80 million in damages across thousands of PCs. The Code Red worm of 2001 caused over $2 billion dollars in damage as it spread to thousands of Windows servers. In November 2008, one very salacious worm infected 9-15 million Microsoft Servers around the world including those of the French Navy, UK Ministry of Defence (including Royal Navy warships and submarines), Sheffield Hospital network, German Bundeswehr (Federal Police Force) and the Norwegian Police.
Virus writers keep virus protection software writers very busy and are always playing catch-up. Once virus protection software writers learn of a new virus release, they write new code to combat the virus and clean the PC. In response to this, the virus authors write and release another new virus and so the cycle continues. It’s enough to make your head spin!
How do you, as an average computer user, protect yourself in such a rapid environment? My first recommendation is to purchase and install a full-spectrum Internet security package on your PC. As you will quickly see, there are scads of these packages to choose from. Which one is the best? Ask ten people and you’ll get ten answers. Beware of the novice user that highly recommends a particular title over all others! When asking for and receiving advice from others, make sure the source of your advice is qualified to give it! Remember, too, that commercials and ads are meant to convince you to buy a product and to saturate the market with its name. Beware of packages that are popular simply for their ad campaign or package labeling. That doesn’t mean they have the best product, it simply means they have the best marketing department!
A little known fact, and I can’t figure why it’s so little known, is that most Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer a security package as a member benefit. In most cases, the consumer is already paying for this service but hasn’t activated it. In my experience, these packages exceed those available on the retail market. If you think about it, it’s in the ISP’s best interest to keep you and their network clean so relying on their timeliness is often a safe bet. If you are unsure if your ISP offers such a benefit, just give them a call. They’ll walk you through the whole process. Again, it’s in their own best interest, right?
My Mother-in-Law has a saying, “If one is good, two is better!” Not in this case! Choose one all-around package and remove any others from your PC. Do not overlap as this has the potential to bog down and lock up your system. Don’t invite the blue screen of death!
Everything to this point has been PC related, that is, Personal Computer running a version of the Windows Operating System. What about Mac? Isn’t a Mac at risk, also? The answer is no, and yes. Most virus writers target PCs since they represent market dominance, over 90%. Writers target the largest possible population since disabling 10% of the market would barely make the local news. For the writers that do write for the Mac, the Mac operating system has built-in features protecting it from attacks. Whether an add-in security suite is necessary at this time for a Mac gets mixed answers so it becomes a question of personal preference.
At the end of the day, this is not an issue you can choose to ignore. Ignore it and you’ll get it!
computer viruses: a computer program that can copy itself onto a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user. Viruses could be introduced to your computer from a disk, flash drive, CD.
computer worms: Similar to a computer virus but a worm can “Self replicate” itself to other computers throughout a computer network without any user involvement.
trojan horse: Just like the mythological Trojan Horse, these programs appear to be useful free downloads but when you download them to your computer you also download other unwanted and malicious programs onto your computer. Trojans could thus be used to install all kinds of malware onto your computer.
spyware: Malware that is downloaded to your computer with the purpose of tracking or recording the user’s activities without the user’s consent. Such malicious software could be used to log keystrokes to get passwords, or just track internet search histories to target pop-up advertisements.
adware: Some free downloads from the internet will ask the user for consent to install spyware software on the users computer as part of the download agreement. Such software is usually referred to as adware instead of spyware since the user has given consent to be tracked in exchange for some free software
web cookies: These are usually harmless bits of text that are downloaded automatically whenever you open a website. The cookie is used to track your visits to a specific website. The creators of websites use cookies to gather data about who and how often their website is being accessed.
Sources: 180techtips.com, Internet.Cytalk.com, pc-history.org
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“Tech Tuesday” is published every Tuesday. To reach Tracy with comments or questions, email her here.
