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Has your computer got a virus?

Sometimes life is so strange that you are indeed left wondering if there is an intervening force at hand.

Last week, I was sitting down with two customers in a training session, providing them with an introduction to the internet. As usual, the last half hour comprised a question and answer session.

One of the customers already had his own e-mail account at Hotmail and I asked him to provide me with a real-life example of the problem he was having. Opening his hotmail account, he clicked on a message to delete it, turning to me he said �that�s another thing, I keep getting this junk mail�.

�Stop!� I shouted. �What on earth is my son doing writing to you?!�

We then engaged in a most bizarre conversation; here was a customer of Explorers internet cafe who had received an e-mail from my son, who works at the cafe, but neither of them had given each other their e-mail address or communicated in any way. It was entitled �USA cluster�.

Then the penny dropped, I remembered reading about a rather clever virus which used something called a cluster technique. Searching the internet, I was quite excited to find that no one had released any information on USA cluster - I then convinced myself that I had found my very first new strain of a virus... or, I had gone completely barmy.

Viruses have been around for quite some time (allegedly since the mid-1980s when the Amjad Brothers in Pakistan wrote �Brain� in an attempt to stop people copying software) but only broke into the mainstream news when such viruses as Melissa and Love Letter came around.

The reason for these viruses hitting the news is twofold. Firstly, commerce and consumer alike are now using e-mails on a daily basis. More importantly, this mass communication travels around the world at lightening speed, in epidemic proportions. If a particularly malicious virus was to attach itself to these correspondences, the potential damage is ineffable.

As perverse as it may be, rather like an ingenious robbery, you are left secretly admiring the brain power behind the despicable deed. Some viruses attach themselves to existing files, overwriting some of the code so as to look exactly the same size, shape and form as the original to the unsuspecting eye. Some only run at certain times of the day, week, month or year. Others load straight into memory on boot up, allowing them to beat or even disable virus scans.

My favourite �clever� virus is an encrypting virus such as �Monkey�, which effectively re-writes all of your programmes and encrypts them. The Monkey programme itself contains the key to deciphering the code, so if you delete �Monkey� without first rendering it harmless you will not be able to read any of your files - quite ingenious!

This complexity of viruses, the potential disaster it can cause and the power of the media have all served to create a massive sideline in anti-virus software and all of the consultation and upgrade contracts which may go with it.

What is important to understand is that the threat of an attack by a virus on a corporation is very real and can have devastating results. If a new virus attaches itself to your PC, it may not be recognised by your virus scanner as it is too new or your software is not working properly etc - the damage is then done.

With the onslaught of e-mail across the world of commerce, this leaves most corporations computers open to attack. An estimated 87% of all viruses are said to come via the internet.

Precautionary measures are common sense:
1. Educate all employees of the dangers of attack from viruses. If they receive an attachment or even a message via e-mail that they are unsure of they should either inform the IT department, not open it or at least make a log of it before opening it. If their machine slows down, programmes become erratic or they are receiving unusual or unsolicited e-mails, it is time for the PC doctor to have a look for viruses
2. Make sure you have a virus scanner/programme running on all PCs or servers. More importantly, check to see it is running and up-to-date. Virus scanners are notorious for being switched off, out-of-date or simply broken.

Many anti-virus programmes update themselves automatically. Ensure you have a mechanism for checking your system is up-to date with the latest version or pattern.

So which package should you buy? Sophos is acknowledged as a leading corporate package but is a little on the pricey side.

The system we have been using at Explorers is Penicillin, by Trend Anti-Virus, who also make large corporate editions. This is an excellent package but Trend always seem to be a little behind Norton and McCaffeys Dr Solomon in getting new fixes to the market.

Recently we have been trying Norton, by Symantec, on the systems we have been building for our customers but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong and is impossible to remove properly.

A newcomer to the market is Panda, a remarkable package which we are selling for only �10.

A big word of warning: never install more than one anti-virus software on the machine. This is invariably counter-productive due to the inherent design of anti-virus software.

In terms of money saving, many of our customers and friends obtain free anti-virus programmes from the internet. Very often these are stripped down versions of fuller packages by major manufacturers so may be worthwhile considering.

Finally a light-hearted word of caution: one of the greatest examples of a �virus� and the gullibility of the �punter� is the hoax virus.

Hoax viruses are generally e-mails which have been written to create fear, which then triggers the recipient to send an e-mail to everyone on his address book to warn them of a new virus.

They generally go along the lines of �We are writing to you on behalf AOL and Microsoft to inform you of a new and very dangerous virus, which there is currently no cure for. It is sent from Taiwan and is headed �Free Sex�. Under no circumstances should you open this file as it will overwrite all of the data on your hard drive. Please inform everyone of this new and dangerous virus�.

What then happens is the pyramid effect and everyone starts e-mailing everyone about the virus. The aim of the creator of the virus is to either have a laugh at our expense or ultimately bring a server down through over use.

Why do people write viruses? Many reasons are expounded. Fame and notoriety are listed high; governments and extremists now use them as weapons of attack; and some use them to force an issue home. The most current issue is to force Microsoft to improve their software - they do this by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft�s code. It�s perverse but it works - hence there are so many upgrades to Microsoft�s programmes.

11:45am Wednesday 25th June 2003