Computer Virus and Data Loss

 

The article below illustrates how computer viruses started and how they have become to spread so quickly, how to spot potential signs of a virus infection and illustrates the importance of data backup should a virus strike.

 

Initially started out as small funnies written by techies with spare time but computers became more world wide and of greater importance to all who used them they took on a more sinister nature.  They started to effect how we use our computers and started costing business a lot of money the cost was ultimately passed on the the consumer.

 

In the early days (you remember them) viruses we spread using bulletin boards where you could download programmes or games free of charge, the resulting program was not the intended software but a virus which could wipe all of the data from your hard drive.  Authors of viruses have always and will always try stay ahead of the authors or anti-virus software, this is a battle where businesses and and individuals are caught in the middle.  It must be stated though that it has been rumoured the the people who write and sell anti-virus software also create the viruses, I am sure you can work this one out for yourself.

 

Initially computers worked in isolation so the spread of a virus was limited to mainly downloaded software but the threat of infection grew as floppy disks were introduced.  As the whole content of a computer hard drive could be stored on a floppy disk and a computer would often boot up from a floppy disk  this became the ideal media for a virus author to exploit.

 

Broadband internet access is now the ultimate high speed virus motorway.  A virus can be developed a release in America and 2 hours later computers in the UK can be affected.  Viruses are now can be transferred from computer to computer to servers by methods such as email, TCP/IP traffic portable USB drives, downloads to name a few.  Viruses are not becoming much more sophisticated which means once infected, it is difficult to remove or disinfect without losing data.

 

How to spot a potential incoming virus and spot virus symptoms.

It is not always easy to spot an incoming virus but there are things you can look out for and take extra precaution with:-

1. If an email arrives from an unknown sender never open the attachment regardless of how interesting it may look.  If the email has an web link to click please don't it will probably take you to a site where a Trojan will automatically download.  If you do open the link which has a virus your computer will dramatically slow down as the virus takes hold.

2. Always look out for an attachment which has an invalid file extension such as gif.exe or .jpg.vbs.  This will almost certainly be a virus.

3. Sometimes your anti-virus software will stop running and it cannot be re-installed, this is a classic symptom illustrating a virus infection.

4. If a dialog box suddenly appears and regardless of what you click or do it will not disappear, this again illustrates a virus infection.

5. If an icon appears on your desktop or in the all programmes list which does not relate to any program installed can be a virus infection.

6. If any sounds play for an unknown reason or music plays at random can be caused by a virus.

7. Should a lot of available disk space greatly reduce quickly

8. Your computer will turn off and will not restart correctly.

 

How Data Loss Occurs

 

Once your computer has become infected with a virus it is usually very difficult to remove without any data loss.  The reason for this is the virus causes damage to your data in an attempt to wipe out and destroy as much of your data as possible.

 

1. The virus will duplicate, reducing your hard drive's available space, and will also probably delete or even corrupt your existing files.

2. A virus is now sophisticated enough to automatically the infected file to your address list stored in your email application.

3. A virus can reformat your entire hard drive resulting in total data loss.

4. Viruses can remove all security measures within Windows so a remote user can see exactly what you are doing or worse still take control of your computer.

 

With all the above in mind your should try to protect your computer at various levels.  Install anti-virus software, firewall software and making sure your operating system is always up to date with recent patches.

 

Even though you ensure you protect your data with all the latest techniques, it is still not 100% safe, so you should always backup your data. 

 

Data backup for home users and small businesses has always been an issue as it is usually time consuming and costly both of which are luxuries which we do not have.  An online backup which involves backing up your computer data to a remote data centre via your existing internet connection solution now eliminates both issues, firstly it is totally automatic so you never need to get involved and secondly you can backup all your data for as little as £4.75 per month.

 

So regardless of what measures you put in place to protect you computer data make sure you regularly back up your data.