Virus: Trojan.Lodear

A Trojan horse that attempts to download remote files. It will inject a .dll file into the EXPLORER.EXE process causing system instability.

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Computer viruses can wipe out or totally destroy a computer. They can be the worst program your computer has ever encountered. On the other hand, they can just be an annoyance. Computer viruses are put on computers without the owner’s knowledge or permission. There are a variety of popular computer viruses that computer owners should be aware of.

Boot sector computer viruses:
A boot sector virus first became popular in the 1980’s, when computer technology first began to take off. As its name states, a boot sector virus effects the boot sector of your computer - which is the bootable disk or hard drive. Some of the more damaging boot sector viruses that occurred in the past years included Disk Killer and Michelangelo.

Email viruses:
Email viruses use email to carry viruses from one computer to another. For example, if someone sends you an email message with an attachment that is infected by a virus, if you open up that attachment your computer will become infected. Some of the most malicious email viruses are smart enough to gather the email addresses of everyone in your email address book, and email themselves out to everyone. This, the virus can be spread extremely quickly. The best way to avoid getting an email virus is not to open email from email address that you don’t recognize. Many email programs now come with virus scans of attachments before you even download them. Some email programs even separate large email files, most likely to be spam, into separate spam folders.

Companion viruses:
Companion viruses affect your computer’s MS-DOS. Companion viruses have the ability to create malicious files that look exactly like valid files on your computer. For example, if you type in the name of a program that you want to use, and do not type the “.exe” extension to that program along with it, your computer’s MS-DOS will think that you meant the file that comes frist in alphabetical order. Thus, your computer will then execute the virus instead of the program that you wanted to run. Luckily, running newer operating systems like Windows XP will prevent such viruses, as Windows XP does not use the MS-DOS prompt.

Trojan horse viruses:
Trojan horse viruses are actually a form of malware, but they are also considered viruses because of the damage that they can cause to your computer. Trojan horse virus is tricky. It can be something as simple as a desktop screensaver that you want to put on your computer. Only, when you install the screensaver with the virus, the Trojan horse actually goes in and lets hackers into your computer system. Hackers can take a look at any passwords, bank account, credit card, or other personal information you have on your PC. Trojan horse viruses can be so malicious that they can even erase your files without your consent.

If you want to stay safe from computer viruses such as the ones mentioned above, it is imperative that you purchase high-quality virus protection software as well as a firewall that will make it difficult for anyone or anything to access your computer.

One of the easiest things you can do to help protect your computer and data, if you have windows XP is to use the limited and administrator account options. In Windows NT, 2000 and XP. You have the option of these types of computer accounts.

Running your windows sessions under a limited account will help protect your data. This type of account can stop anything from getting into the system files of windows. You see, windows has important files that should never be messed with. Think of these files as the engine that runs windows. When you get a virus, it can mess with these files and cause your computer to stop working all together.

The administrator account has full access to the computer and system files. If you get a virus under this account, it has full access to your computer and can do as it pleases. This is why it is so important to run under a limited account when you use your computer. You can perform other things like installing software under the admin account.

There have even been a couple of times when I got lazy and decided to run my computer under admin all the time and you guessed it, I paid the price. I lost data and all sorts of things. Believe me, its not fun starting over again from scratch.

Do yourself a favor and learn this all important little task right away and save yourself from paying any high computer repair bills in the future.

Here’s what to do if you have a new computer and you are not sure if you running under admin. Go to the start menu and then control panel. Once in the control panel, choose user accounts. Find your name and under it you will see that it says either limited or admin account. If you only have one account and it reads admin, then you will need to create another account and choose limited.

Windows comes installed with an admin account by default. If you already have your own name account, then just check to see which type it is. If it is an admin account then you should change your screen name to a limited account. However, before you do this make sure you know what the admin’s accounts password is so you can get in there to perform any admin functions if you need to.

If you are still not sure about how to do this, you can look under the windows help file for more information, in the help box just type in user accounts. You can also find a friend who is knowledgeable about computers to help you or call your computer manufacturer.

Just by doing this simple little task you can save yourself a lot of grief in the future from most viruses.

Today so many industries use spy ware programs as a way to advertise. These programs are designed to be click on or automatically re-rout you to the advertisers website. Other types of programs are the annoying pop ups you get on your computer screen. Some of these programs are capable of tracking which keys you type thus for computing exactly what you are saying or typing.

This is how hackers are able to obtain your private and personal information. With programs such as these you may not know who has your personal information or even worse what its being used for. It is annoying, but being educated on the signs of spyware and how to protect yourself from it is a great way to keep yourself safe from the hassles and fears of these malicious programs.

There are several ways to know if you have spyware on your computer: You continue to get tons of pop ups even when your pop up blocker is activated. When you put in a specific website you are redirected to a different site. Also new and unexpected icons on your tool bar can be a sign of malicious software. You may experience lagging due to these programs and the computer trying to process all of the information. This lagging can be stopped by practicing good protection against viruses. There are many anti spyware programs but some viruses may bypass these programs.

So to keep you and your computer safe from the hassles of spy-ware here are a few easy tips. Don’t click links in a pop up box because in most cases these are malicious and may automatically download to your computer with or without your knowing. When closing a pop up box refrain from pushing anything inside the pop up box itself this could again download a program without you knowing it. Try to push the red X and if you want to refrain from touching the pop up box then right click the pop up box and click Close. If an error message comes up that you are not familiar with click the X or NO.

Only if you know what the pop up box is can you click yes. But sometimes familiar looking error messages are just concealed spy-ware. By using these tips you can keep your computer and yourself safe from all of these malicious programs. Now you can defend yourself from the Internet at least a little bit and go back to enjoying the comforts of the Internet.

These days you may or may not be worried about computer security. It’s no lie.

It’s a hot topic but not everyone is worried about it. But what if you are one of those, who are worried about keeping your computer secure

Well, the first thing you need to do is get educated. You need to learn a little about what threats can happen to your computer. In this article I will cover the 3 types of viruses and what hackers really are.

Oh I know, you are asking do I have to fear the reaper. Well, that my friend is up to you. Just a little computer humor there.

Ok, so the three types of viruses are as follows:

1. Trojan or backdoor virus
2. Worm type viruses
3. Macro viruses

It is important to learn what each of these viruses is about and can do to your computer system.

The first virus on the list, the Trojan virus can be used by hackers to access your system. These types of viruses are usually planted through email.

It is important to know that a virus is a program and cannot really do anything to your system unless you run it or click on it.

And mostly what happens is someone receives an email and clicks on an attachment. This in turn opens the virus and runs the program.

One the program is opened or executed. This is where the damage can occur.

If a hacker has access to a program that allows them to scan for these viruses over the internet and they find your computer system unprotected.
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