Don't risk infection - keep
bugs at bay
How to protect your computer from viruses, worms and Trojan
horses
 What
could disable the South African government, Taiwan's post
office, a bank in Finland, New South Wales railways, Google,
and the UK Coastguard?
The threat was not terrorism and global warming, but the
Sasser worm, coded by a German teenager, which infected more
than a million computers worldwide. Most were infected just
by using the internet, as the worm takes advantage of a hole
in Windows XP and 2000 machines.
The Sasser worm causes less permanent damage than many viruses
and worms, but it can prompt computers to continually crash
and reboot. The latest version is so aggressive in scanning
for new computers to infect, that it can slow down networks.
Computer viruses and worms can cause untold damage for the
user, including mining your data for financial or confidential
information and wiping data off your machine. They can take
over your email program and send themselves to everyone in
your address book, so passing on the infection.
Web sites face further risks including denial of service
attacks, where a site is bombarded with so many requests for
information that it can no longer function.
Fortunately, there's plenty you can do to protect your own
computer from attack, often at little cost.
- Install some anti-virus software. New machines will already
have this installed, but you need to keep it up to date.
If your machine is older, or unprotected, you should contact
a supplier such as McAfee (www.McAfee.com)
or Symantec (www.symantec.com).
Their websites contain a wealth of information on viruses
and other threats and are well worth a browse.
- Install a firewall from Zonelabs (www.zonelabs.com)
or another provider. A firewall, which consists of a set
of security procedures to protect your data, should be a
particular priority if you have broadband web access.
Some of these companies offer packages which include anti-virus
and firewall programs as well as anti-spam filters for email,
and can block irritating pop-up windows and banners.
- Adjust the security setting on your e-mail program and
your web browser. You can find these by going to Tools,
Options and then Security. In your email program it's best
to block attachments as these can contain viruses.
Finally, the great majority of viruses are targeted at Microsoft
products including Internet Explorer or Outlook, so it may
be worth considering an alternative, such as Netscape and
Netscape Communicator. Linux and Apple Macs also receive less
viruses, though as Linux requires some expertise to set up,
it may not be a good option for beginners.
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Web under siege:
Viruses, worms and Trojan horses
Virus
Code written with the express intention of replicating
itself. A virus attempts to spread from computer to
computer by attaching itself to a host program. It may
damage hardware, software, or data.
Worm
Self-propagating malicious code that can automatically
distribute itself from one computer to another through
network connections. A worm can take harmful action,
such as consuming network or local system resources,
or causing a denial of service attack on your web site.
Trojan horse
Delivered to users through misleading or ambiguous e-mail
messages, a Trojan horse program appears to be useful
or harmless, but contains hidden code designed to exploit
or damage your computer.
Source: Microsoft
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WEBWATCH
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International Dialling Codes
SCI is one of many UK organisations to use the +44 prefix
on its telephone numbers. But what does that mean?
The International Dialling Codes site on http://kropla.com/dialcode.htm
will tell you all about it. There is an explanation
of International Direct Dialling, plus the country codes
for everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
The site also explains National Direct Dialling, or
the area codes for use within that country. These are
helpfully linked to the country code table, so you just
have to click on the Zimbabwe link to get the area code
for Harare.
The How to Call page makes the complicated business
of dialling those long numbers in the right order even
easier.
Do you have a site you would like to recommend to SCI Members? If so, please
send us the URL at web@soci.org,
with ‘Webwatch’ in the subject line.
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By Joanna Pegum, Web Editor
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