Chapter 9: Protecting Against Viruses


Overview

Nobody likes to be sick, and most people do their best to steer clear of the latest bug, be it the flu, the common cold, or some other nasty virus. You don't have to be a doctor to recognize that prevention really is the best medicine, particularly when the alternative is acquiring and then trying to defeat the bug that's found you. Quite simply, you're almost always better off if you can avoid being infected in the first place.

When it comes to illnesses, computers and people share a common bond. Certainly your PC is not susceptible to the common cold (although it is a capable transmission vehicle!), but computers get sick, too. In PC land, malicious programs and bits of code known as computer viruses cause the illnesses. From users opening infected e-mail attachments to users neglecting to apply the latest operating system security patches, there's no shortage of ways for your computer to be potentially infected by the latest bout of some particularly nasty virus.

Unfortunately, when your computer is infected with a virus, both its security and your privacy are extremely at risk. Computer viruses used to be designed to be annoying or destructive, but the viruses of today are of a much meaner and more malicious ilk. Some are designed to allow Internet users to remotely control your computer, whereas others propagate themselves by using communications methods available on your PC such as e-mail or file-sharing programs. There are even viruses designed with the explicit purposes of stealing credit card or online banking details from your PC.

The threats posed by viruses are very real, so both preventing and removing these pests need to be considered an absolute priority in the quest for a more secure Windows Vista system. In this chapter you learn more about the different types of viruses that exist, what they're out to do, and methods that can be used to prevent them from infecting your system in the first place. You also examine some of the tools that can be used to remove viruses from your PC if it is infected, even if you don't have antivirus software installed. Most importantly, you learn how to ensure that your PC is properly geared up so that the threat of acquiring viruses in the future is as low as possible.



PC Magazine Windows Vista Security Solutions
PC Magazine Windows Vista Security Solutions
ISBN: 0470046562
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 135
Authors: Dan DiNicolo

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