If you receive an e-mail with an attachment from someone you don’t know you should delete it immediately. Tip: Never open anything that is attached to an e-mail unless you were expecting the attachment and you know the exact contents of that file. The virus is launched when you open the file attachment (usually by double-clicking the attachment icon). Photos, letters written in Microsoft Word, and even Excel spreadsheets are just some of the file types you might receive through e-mail each day. You can usually tell if your e-mail includes an attachment because you’ll see a paperclip icon that represents the attachment and includes its name. Many of the most dangerous viruses were primarily spread through e-mail attachments: the files that are sent along with an e-mail message. Virtually all viruses and many worms cannot spread unless you open or run an infected program. Always download Microsoft updates and patches from Microsoft Windows Update or Microsoft Office Update. Never download software from a source that you don’t trust. Trojan Horses can also be included in software that you download for free. We also publish all our security alerts on our Security Bulletins page before we e-mail them to our customers. To better protect users, Microsoft often sends out security bulletins via e-mail, but they will never contain attachments. Trojan Horses spread when people are lured into opening a program because they think it comes from a legitimate source. Trojan Horse (n.) A computer program that appears to be useful but that actually does damage. A recent Trojan Horse came in the form of an e-mail that included attachments claiming to be Microsoft security updates, but turned out to be viruses that attempted to disable antivirus and firewall software. Just as the mythological Trojan Horse appeared to be a gift, but turned out to contain Greek soldiers who overtook the city of Troy, today’s Trojan Horses are computer programs that appear to be useful software, but instead they compromise your security and cause a lot of damage. For example, the recent MyDoom worm was designed to open up a “back door” on infected systems and use those systems to attack Web sites. A worm can consume memory or network bandwidth, thus causing a computer to stop responding.īecause worms don’t need to travel via a “host” program or file, they can also tunnel into your system and allow somebody else to take control of your computer remotely. A worm generally spreads without user action and distributes complete copies (possibly modified) of itself across networks. When new worms are unleashed, they spread very quickly, clogging networks and possibly making you wait twice as long for you (and everyone else) to view Web pages on the Internet. For example, a worm could send out copies of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book, and their computers would then do the same, causing a domino effect of heavy network traffic that would slow down business networks and the Internet as a whole. A great danger of worms is their ability to replicate in great volume. Once you have a worm in your system it can travel alone. The good news is that a true virus does not spread without human action to move it along, such as sharing a file or sending an e-mail.Ī worm, like a virus, is designed to copy itself from one computer to another, but it does so automatically by taking control of features on the computer that can transport files or information. Just as human viruses range in severity from Ebola to the 24-hour Flu, computer viruses range from the mildly annoying to the downright destructive. It may damage hardware, software, or information. A virus attempts to spread from computer to computer by attaching itself to a host program. Virus (n.) Code written with the express intention of replicating itself. Viruses can damage your software, your hardware, and your files. Read on for definitions, ways to find out if you’ve been victimized, and solutions you can use to help make your computer safer.Ī virus is a piece of computer code that attaches itself to a program or file so it can spread from computer to computer, infecting as it travels. Think of it as locking your front door to protect your entire family. The good news is that with an ounce of prevention and some good common sense you are less likely to fall victim to these threats. Viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses are malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer and information on your computer, slow down the Internet, and use your computer to spread themselves to your friends, family, co-workers, and the rest of the Web. The following information from Microsoft web site can be helpful in understanding Viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses.
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