An old article I wrote for Hamasat www.hamasat.net 2006 and the information is still valid except for my favorite anti-virus app as now I prefer Nod32 and AVAST and also use a floppy disk that some may not know these days
It comes to mind, when you hear the word virus of infectious diseases that affect humans. If we come to the minute, it is never far away, as computer viruses cause damage to one part just as disease viruses cause fatigue in the body parts and these viruses are transmitted from one device to another just as disease viruses are transmitted from the infected person to the right person. It has been said in the past (prevention is better than treatment) and this rule applies perfectly to the quality of dealing with computer viruses, especially in light of the increasing number of viruses Definition of the virus Computer virus is a small program programmed by one of the gamer to satisfy his childish pleasure and viruses vary in terms of their effects and the level of destruction they can cause. Most of these viruses are programmed through the Visual Basic program and have an exe extension. 1. Types of viruses Viruses can be divided into three types: 1. Take-off viruses (start up) When turned on, your computer needs internal special instructions to find out the components of the device, size, and location, which are usually found in files called System Files, which contain take-off software. This type of virus infiltrates the private sector of boot sector, destroys and tampers with its contents, disrupting the take-off process. The system does not work or work with many mistakes. 2- File virus This type attacks operating system, and any other software on your computer, such as desktop applications, games, etc., and tampers with and destroys the contents of files that end up stretching bin, sys, exe, com. Macro viruses These viruses infect desktop application software such as Microsoft Word or Axel. It is one of the most widespread and used viruses to infiltrate your computer through applications. Are all viruses destroyed? Of course not. There are some viruses that treat tricks such as the file that the sender asks you to turn on and when you turn it on you find that the laser disk has opened or that file that causes the device to restart when you press it. There are also some viruses that send your list of correspondence to your author. The common factor here is that they do things without your knowledge and cause you to be harassed. How do viruses travel? There are multiple and different ways to contract viruses, including: 1- Transmission of viruses through the Internet, especially when downloading programs and files from different and unreliable sites. And sometimes by visiting sites mined with those viruses. 2- File sharing through the use of e-mail (especially attached files). 3- Participate in the use of floppy disk or flash memory between different computers. Prevention methods To maintain the safety and health of your device, you must: 1- It is necessary to support your device with an antiviral software on the device (such as Norton Norton AntiVirus, McAfee and the new comer program strongly: Kaspersky Kaspersky) and run it throughout the period of use of the device. This allows these programs to search for and destroy viruses, whether weekly, daily or when running. It is important that the program be from a reliable source and not from free or non-authentic copies. I find it important to refer to these programs affected by the presence of more than one of them so there should be only one program in the device 2- It is also necessary to update the virus explorer program periodically, by obtaining it from the producing company, or from various Websites, in order to ensure that you have access to the latest information and symptoms of new viruses, and how to prevent them, especially since vandals and virus-making amateurs will never stop developing their viruses. 3- Run antivirus explorer software, and scan any new files or programs that connect you via email, internet, and floppy disks. No anonymous files or software are allowed to enter and operate without prior examination. 4- When you get any CD or flash memory, make sure it is free of viruses before you turn on any file. 5- Pay attention not to turn on or restart the computer with the floppy disk in its location, as some of these viruses hide inside the floppy disk until you have the right opportunity to run there. 6- If you want to use diskette (or Flash Memory) in more than one device, make sure it is only in the reading body, this may prevent the virus from moving from the device to the floppy disk or to portable memory. 7- Do not run any file that you do not know who sent it and if you doubt any file you should ask the sender if he sent it or he sent to you through one of the programs that uses your mailing list to send you viruses as these messages became widespread these days and is a big reason for the spread of some types of sabotage viruses. 8- Do not open any message that is not known to the sender, especially if it carries attachments or asks you to visit a suspicious site. 9- You should pay attention to messages sent from a program that may trick you into putting one of your known names as the sender's name and make sure that the mailman is the person who actually sent you the message. There is currently a virus that, when infected with the device, sends itself to all the list of names in your mail and the transmission is in your name. So you should expect to receive some messages from your known mail and be careful. Following previous prevention methods, and adopting them as a permanent daily system in dealing with your device, ensures that your computer is healthy and prevented from contracting viruses, but we should know that these idiots do not stop and invent many new viruses every day and so we will always be at war with viruses. In conclusion, I find it important to refer to those messages that we receive from time to time and ask us to delete one of the files and claim that it is a virus and here we must before we delete any file that may be important to make sure of that from official websites that give news of viruses such as: References http://www.f-secure.com/virus-info/virus-news/ http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html http://www.kaspersky.com/