Known Bugs

In 2000, a computer worm successfully infected millions of Windows PCs across the world through email. Popularly known as the ILOVEYOU worm, this caused damage with an estimated value of $5.5 billion. As a matter of fact, the British Parliament, CIA, and The Pentagon all had to shut down their mail systems to stop the spread of the ILOVEYOU computer worm. Once the infected email was opened, the worm replicated itself and sent a copy to everyone listed in the infected user's mailing list. It also made malicious changes to the infected user's system.

How ILOVEYOU virus was spread

In May of 2000, millions of email users received a malicious email with the subject ILOVEYOU. It had a .txt attachment named LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU. It appeared as a simple and harmless .txt file while in fact, it was a .vbs file, meaning the worm was created by using VBS or Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting. This means that although all computers can receive and open this type of email worm, only Windows PCs can be infected. This email worm quickly spread around the world because the malicious emails often appeared as messages from acquaintances, since the worm targeted an email user's mailing list. Another reason why this bug was able to infect millions of PCs in just a short period of time is because it took advantage of a flaw in the Microsoft system setting. As a result, Microsoft received lots of criticisms for leaving such a dangerous flaw unfixed. This bug also took advantage of a flaw in the email system, in which an attached program can be easily accessed by simply opening the attachment.

Creators of the ILOVEYOU virus

After investigation, the ILOVEYOU virus was traced back to the Philippines. The creators of the ILOVEYOU virus are siblings Onel and Irene de Guzman, Michael Buenafe, and Reomel Lamores.

Computer worms in general may not be as harmful as some computer viruses but the ILOVEYOU bug definitely caught the attention of the world. To avoid getting infected by a bug through email, make sure that your PC is equipped with the latest versions of anti-malware software.

A computer user faces so many threats that will adversely affect the software that are already installed in one’s computer: destroy the files that have been saved or gain access to personal information that violates privacy and may be used in fraudulent transactions. Such security threats to one’s personal computer include viruses, Trojan horses, adware, spyware, and other malware.

What is adware?

Adware is the more famous term for advertising-supported software. It is a software package that is incorporated in particular software that is downloaded from the Internet. Adware automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements, while a legitimate software application is being installed or used. Adware is being used by a software developer as a means to recover its research and development costs or as a means to recover costs for the free use of the legitimate software or access of the software at a discounted price. Pop-up adware, while sometimes informative, can be a nuisance, distraction, or threat for the user. One type of adware that is most dangerous is known as spyware, which is classified as privacy-invasive software. Spyware usually includes a code that tracks a user’s personal details and these in turn are passed on to third parties without the user’s authorization or knowledge.

How do you get rid of harmful adware?

Because adware is harmful, there are various ways to avoid them. The best way is to acquire and pay for a registered or licensed copy of the software that do not contain any advertisement. There is also the option of getting anti-virus software and “advanced adware blockers,” which intercept and destroy all forms of pop-up ads, give frequent updates to ensure that one’s PC is protected against the latest threats, and give free technical support to resolve any problem or question. A number of software applications are available to search, detect, and remove suspicious adware programs. Most prominent and preferred are Ad-Aware, OptOut, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, and Spybot-Search and Destroy.

While it is now easy to get freeware by downloading software through the Internet, computer users should protect themselves against computer viruses, adware, and other software. These are threats to one’s personal information security, computer, and the files contained therein.

Even the most cautious computer user faces a number of threats in the form of malicious software. Here are two common types:

Viruses

Viruses are programs that come with executable files, programs, or applications, usually hidden in email attachments or downloadable files. When you open these files, the virus makes copies of itself and saves these copies onto your computer. Some viruses are merely the equivalent of annoying pranks, making error messages, annoying pictures, or irritating sounds appear on your computer. Other viruses are more harmful. They can delete existing files on your computer, or cause your computer to freeze or crash frequently.

Spyware

Spyware is a type of malicious software that gathers information from your computer. Aside from being able to monitor your activities online, such as checking your Internet browsing history, spyware programs can also collect the usernames and corresponding passwords that you use on various websites. Spyware can also track any personal information that you enter online, such as credit card numbers when you buy something. The effects of spyware can range from the merely annoying, like pop-up windows and ads constantly coming up, to truly harmful. Spyware can change the settings on your computer, affect your connection speed, and destabilize your computer. A spyware infection can cause many programs to freeze or even make your computer crash entirely. Also, information gathered by spyware can be used to commit crimes such as identity theft.

With these threats to your computer, it’s important to safeguard against them by installing security software.

The Trojan Horse is not a virus per se. It is actually a computer program that destroys your computer as great as viruses. This program can enter your computer anytime through spams, seemingly attractive emails, and email images. It does not spread through your computer system, but it brings as much destruction as viruses. So if you see something beautiful and alluring in your computer, even a captivating email subject heading, you better be careful.

This destructive program originates from Greek mythology where Greek soldiers fooled the Trojans by using a huge wooden horse. The Greeks made this huge horse and brought it outside the Trojan gates. The Trojans thought it was a kind of peace offering from the gods so they brought the thing inside. When the horse was inside, the Greeks suddenly sneaked out of its body. They opened the gates of Troy to let others in.

Likewise, the Trojan Horse usually presents itself as a captivating program. It sometimes works as an anti-virus program but once you download it, it will suddenly destroy your computer. The Trojan Horse is among the common computer threats that everybody wants to avoid. However, without the sufficient Internet security, your computer will surely suffer. So, the next best step to take is get an on line support now. Download or purchase the best Internet security provider.

The Internet after dominating the multimedia as a very good source of ancient and useless information, now reemerges as a breeding spot for spam and and a training ground for spammers. After five years of sitting idly and surfing the net, I noticed that spammers' shitty brains are getting stinkier than normal. Before, they've been sending us unwanted e-mails with malicious texts or nonsense advertisements. Now, they only send pictures depicting that the reader is a complete moron if he buys the product advertised.

Images sent by spammers are harder to eliminate than ordinary spam. According to some product reviews, the average spam blockers need to detect certain words or URLs to determine that an entering message is spam. But with pictures without texts, filters will not recognize them so they'll easily enter the system, and flood your inbox. Millions of users are affected by these spam pictures, but a billion idiots are affected because they're stupid enough to read e-mails that they don't expect. I think the only way to defeat spam is to turn off our computers to relieve ourselves from the tedious and uninteresting job of deleting unwanted mails. We have spam blockers and filters available in the market, but with the low performance quality, I'd prefer deleting spam manually.

Spyware, malware, and adware abound in the Internet just like red, angry ants, crawling on your fridge to eat your strawberry and cream violets. Good thing is that, just like insect sprays, we've got firewall security systems and anti-spyware products. As we all know, these programs can kill even the sneakiest of all computer bugs. Although some cannot detect all malicious files, it's still better than having no protection at all.

PreEmpt is an anti-spyware tool from PivX that operates uniquely from other security applications. It implements a rigid set of rules on your browser. Instead of detecting and deleting the bugs that silently crawl into your precious system, it automatically puts bars on the gateway to digitally block them before they can penetrate your computer. PreEmpt allows you to surf the Internet hassle-free without the worry of spyware or viruses popping up on your screens. I suppose PivX made an extensive and diligent research to be able to create a security product that makes us and our PCs worry-free. Fellow computer freaks, get rid of the bugs on your PC, through PreEmpt now. You want to know why? It's because you still have loads of ants to deal with.

There you are, enjoying a bubbly glass of float in your favorite fastfood when a well-dressed stranger walks up to you and offers to sell you the Toshiba DVD laptop you've been dreaming for months. Fate? But what if during your chat, he mentions all the shops you've visited last week, including the laptops you've looked at, the bars you've been to, and the food you've ordered?

The idea that someone you've never met before would suddenly turn up and know these details would only mean a single thing: he's been spying on you. This can happen rarely in real life, but in cyberspace, it's a totally different tale. Just as you would protect your privacy in real world, you must give the same amount of security for your online privacy against nasty spyware authors. Zero Spyware is a software that scans your system for possible leaks in every application you run. Once a spyware is found, it is automatically quarantined to prevent it from creating more damage. Unlike other anti-spyware products, this gives you an in-depth information about the spyware found in your system and what they usually do. The $30 price tag is a bit hefty for some users, but then, I can assure that you'll really get what you've paid for with this product.

I really think that aside from installing firewall security systems, anti-spam, anti-viruses, anti-spyware, malware or adware, the utmost measure that we must do is to get a wide breadth of knowledge about the numerous computer threats that we're currently facing. I learned this advice from a friend who works in a computer shop and have dealt with at least hundreds of situations wherein their network was attacked by a hacker and spyware writers. From his experience, these computer enemies are getting more and more modern producing highly complex breed of menace that is difficult to counterstrike. Since everyone has a limited knowledge on computers, he said that what we need to do is try to search for books that tackle about this malady. He also said that we should check technology magazines because these have a load of articles and discussions about viruses and worms. The Internet may provide quality information but it is better if you have paper trail resources in case your computer is not much of a help. I think I have given you guys some books about this matter and I think there's no stopping me to look for more sources of information that I can share with you my fellow computer users.

Knowing that I'm writing blog entries to help computer users, my friend recommended Ivar Peterson's Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs. From the title alone, I guess you will be interested about the book's content and how it will help us slay those pesky bugs. I'm reading the book now, I'm still in the first chapter but I've already learned a lot from it, actually.

As a computer user, I am very conscious about the computer worms and viruses that may attack my personal computer system. I have firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and other security tools installed in my PC. You might think I'm paranoid but having a wishy-washy attitude on technology abuse like this will only make hackers and virus writers more than willing to attack your PC. Even computer experts are doing their best to protect all the networks of business and personal computers; the government agencies on the other hand are intensifying campaigns against these malevolent cyber criminal attacks. With these things happening in the digital world around you, and the security of the Internet and your PC is getting, uh, unsecured, will you still have that lazy attitude towards the protection of your machine? Uhm, not unless you don't have one, but whether you own a computer or not, being aware of these threats and how to combat them is a global necessity.

Speaking of awareness, I only learned about these viruses and computer worms and bugs through self-help books, and computer books. The Internet can provide you a wide collection of knowledge, but having a single book or two is great not only as a good read but in preparing yourself for that soon to be global battle. The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense by Peter Szor is among the good books about computer pest, I don't know if bookstores still sell that book, but if you want you can check online shops for more information.

Most of us have already experienced having our computer display some unwanted error message, hang in the middle of our work, or even crash just when we are about to meet our deadlines. When this occurs, there could be a number of possible reasons, and one of them is that the software has a bug. What do you do? Well, normally, people would not really care to lift a finger to report the error to their programmer. It's much much easier to simply press the reset button in your CPU. The problem with this is that it does not solve the error.

One can look at the software in his or her computer as a product of somebody else - and it really is! It is a creation of somebody, and that somebody, the programmer, will surely not want to create something that is useless. So if something goes wrong with a software you are using, it should be reported to its creator so that the problem could be addressed. Would you simply ignore a defect in some item that you buy from your local home depot?

That is exactly why every computer user should take a little time out of their busy day to report an error to the programmer so that the problem could be fixed. It's all a matter of helping each other out. You help the programmer fix the problem with his program, and you in return are able to benefit from smooth and hassle-free computing.

The FIFA World Cup tournament this year will be held in Germany on the start of June that's why a whirlpool of sports fanatics and athletes combined can't wait for the upcoming major event. Moreover, aside from the maddening crowd of sports aficionados, computer villains are also taking advantage on the Earth's famous gaming milestone. Fidgety computer virus writers are at large for the umpteenth time around and this season, they are targeting to proliferate their homemade viruses to soccer supporters.

Sophos, a company based in the UK has forewarned business and personal users about this new technique performed by computer criminals which taints Excel files and disguised as a chart displaying the who'll be competing for the World Cup. Known as the XF97/Yagnuul-A, is the second breed of the World cup virus identified by the company after Troj/ Haxdoor. The digital pathogen was reported to aid sports fans to establish their own ideal sports competitions pertaining to the upcoming championship. Once it enters the PC, it will start to promulgate itself to other users through the machine and mail itself to people in the e-mail client on the computer.

As a computer user and a supporter of the sports event, I'm really surprised with the way the dirty minds of hackers work. They always know who to target and when to start their devastating assault. With the popularity and the way people craze about the event, the evils surely know that any virus disguised as World cup information will easily lure us from innocently opening the malicious files. Thankfully, we have concerned companies who prove that their aim is not purely profit but as well as Internet security.

Internet security is a weird concoction of hypothetical ideas, intuition, mathematical confidence and a whole lot of keen observation. Computer wizards must do their best to brew a potion that will not create a hole in the cauldron. Measuring the ingredients and stirring the simmering mixture at appropriate intervals would be very challenging because a single miscalculation on the number of chopped wires and programs into the mixture will make your Internet potion an elixir of life for viruses and their writers.

Ah, and speaking of virus writers, for those who don't know, that refers to a bunch of foul, vile, cruel and jackass individuals whose only purpose in life aside from smearing grease in their dry hair is to proliferate destruction to computer machines and mankind. I don't understand why these computer addicts suddenly turned into imbecile monsters and boorish breed of ignoramuses spreading new viruses annually as if that would make lots of money. Actually there are two kinds of virus writers that infest the new computer world.

The first is the active type, those are the ones who spread and create viruses for pleasure and the other is the passive type referring to dummies who clumsily opens attachments in unsolicited electronic mail messages that they don't expect resulting to propagation of tough viruses like Fizzer and Palyh. Both might be different in operation and vary with their intention, however, even if the active type already has the dark motive of broadcasting devastation to the world and the passive are just stupid users maturing into fully bred morons, both of them are still considered disastrous.

Aside from condemning the active virus writers, I think it is also proper for the passive ones to be drowned in a hot lava of humiliation. I hope I'm not being very brutal here, but no computer user in their right mind will open an attachment with clear virus subjects just like "Hottest wallpapers". Ignorance is not an excuse to law neither is total idiocy, and technical reports haven't failed on reminding everyone about the causes and effects of viruses. Maybe this is the time for me to practice my Piggy Oinka jinx to such featherbrained people to turn them into live, squealing pigs.

Makers of antivirus tool recently announced that an ultramodern breed of computer worm that has a capability to proliferate devastation to computers that it contaminates is quickly mobilizing. Winevar, a variation of the brand worm or Bridex was first detected in Korea. The worm simultaneously squashes all your files in your hard drive and, at the same time, insulting you with snide comments.

The launch of the worm was allegedly eventuated in the Antivirus Asia Researchers (AVAR) convention conducted in Seoul. Electronic mail messages with the worm might have the theme, "RE: AVAR". It diffuses itself through rummaging e-mail documents and extorting addresses from the e-mail. It then utilizes SMTP or Simple Mail Transport Protocol in sending its copies to the victim's addresses. The attachment which contains the worm disguise itself through exploiting series of random numbers to snarl the job of sorting the tainted electronic messages.

Once the computers are impured, the nasty bug displays the script " Make a fool of oneself" including a directive "What a foolish thing you've done!". Clicking the OK button will erase all files in your PC hard drive. Computer companies are still conceptualizing on how to kill the stupid worm. They advise users who think that their PCs are infected, not to run them before the malicious messages are removed.

The computer is the most indispensable tool of communication today. We must safeguard our computers from suspected hacks such as viruses, worms, and even widespread junk mails. This is to enjoy fast and effective Internet access. Otherwise, we will experience invasions coming from these viruses as well as interruptions thereby affecting the entire system.

One of the anti-computer virus ever created and embraced by the whole world is the Norton Antivirus 2005 from Symantec. It helps us get rid of worms and several other viruses that may harm or damage our files, hard drives, and even our computers. When we are connected our computers are more susceptible to virus attacks. But, armed with Norton Antivirus 2005, these assaults become blocks at once.

The system immediately eradicates these viruses. Not only that, it does not allow virus attacks to get into our systems. As such our e-mails and attachment to messages are properly protected. It also gives updates on how to protect our systems from viruses and discerns viruses in files that are in bulks. Lastly, it shields against possible threats and spy wares. Once you are equipped with this one, then you are assured of the right degree of protection from computer viruses.

The computer world is like a jungle full of different creatures. Some creatures may coexist symbiotically with other creatures while some are causes of mayhem. Individual computers are similar to single mini ecosystem in the computer world jungle. Without much-needed firewall protection, these mini-ecosystems are vulnerable to occasional viral infections that threaten their integrity to function. These viruses are classified into at least seven categories depending on the nature of the virus. The following are the different categories of computer viruses: boot sector virus, executable load virus, polymorphic virus, macro viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and zombies.

From these seven categories, there are three viruses that I encounter in common. These are the macros, Trojans, and worms. Macro viruses originate in specific macro-enabled applications and are transferred from one application to another. Your Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and other applications may be vulnerable to such viruses. Trojan horses, meanwhile, are malevolent programs in disguise; they may look interesting and appealing at first, but when you try to access it, that's when the destruction starts. Lastly, worms thrive on network connections. These worms bother me the least because they are usually found in multi-user environments such as Unix.

Whenever you mention the term “computer virus,” most people already know that it is harmful to a computer system. Though they are a common problem, there is another type of program that is more malignant than computer viruses. These programs are known as computer worms. The difference between a virus and a worm is that the virus attaches itself to another program while a worm is self-contained and independent. What makes a worm more dangerous than a virus is that it can replicate itself independently without relying on other programs. Generally, worms harm the network performance of the computer by consuming bandwidth.

Perhaps the most famous worm in Internet history is the Internet worm of 1988. The worm replicated overnight and infected every Sun-3 and VAX system. There were so many copies of these worms that the infected systems were rendered unusable. To avoid being infected again, several sites disconnected themselves. Worms are usually used to hide the IP address of spam sender which sometimes blackmail companies. The positive use of worms is a common theoretical question in computer science and artificial intelligence. However, most people still think of worms as nothing but bad news to their computer network.

The Internet is a global communication hub. It is a public place where you can encounter all sorts of people. Some romantic relationships are developed in the Internet. Thousand of miles in distance seem irrelevant when it comes to romance.

Consequently, most people are delusional thinking that their soul mates can be found via the Internet. This romantic aspirations of some may have been one factor why the ‘I LOVE YOU” virus spread like wildfire in May of 2000. The virus originated in the Philippine and was sent as email attachment. The virus caused clogging of computer servers around the world.

Computer viruses like the viruses that infect living organisms have the sole purpose of destruction. Computer viruses can also be classified into different categories depending on the way they operate and their specific targets. Computer viruses may be classified as boot viruses, which attack the boot memory program of a computer disk; program viruses, which destroy or re-write certain executable programs; multipartite viruses, which are hybrids of boot and program viruses; stealth viruses, which can avoid detection and infect computer memory reading; polymorphic viruses, which change their code encryption in many ways appearing different each time; macro viruses, which affect the macros of computer applications; and, active X viruses which can infect browsers.