Posted by Perry
After I read Shelley’s post about the problems Sherry had with her computer, and the struggle we had to fix it, I thought about my own pre-mac days and the headaches I had with viruses.
Most people believe that if you stick to not opening suspicious emails or just not clicking on certain links that you can remain virus free – this is simply not true. While it is true that a lot of today’s viruses are email based, there are hundreds of the nasties just sitting there on web sites. Some are obsolete and even though you might catch one, its payload is now gone, having been caught with anti-virus software and OS security patches.
Here is a link to the top ten worst viruses. This is from 2007 and know that by now, even more ugly viruses have been created (like the rogue software that plagued Sherry’s beloved pc.)
One of the viruses I remember with disdain is Sasser. This worm would infect your pc and cause random crashes due to faulty code in the worm itself. It took me a little time, and some colorful language, to get rid of this thing.
Another virus that doesn’t get much publicity due to its low infection rate is Chernobyl. This thing was an absolute monster, it had dual payloads and was ‘timed’ to deliver them on April 26th, both the authors birthday and the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.
The best advice we can give pc users is to get a great Internet security program — one that has both a firewall AND anti-virus software. Be careful what you open — that seemingly harmless email joke could contain something that turns your computer into an expensive paper weight. Update your OS and security programs often — don’t take a chance that they will keep your system secure without some tlc from you.
Hope this helps and happy computing!