A computer virus is actually a program that infects other programs with its own copy. The virus replicates itself from disk to another disk or system to another system through computer networking. The role of the virus is to perform and does its damage if the program has been infected already. Moreover, the system will also be susceptible to other types of destructive programs that are not classified as virus, instead it is termed as spy wares. Computer viruses are harmless depending on its content. At the same the virus may be considerable harmful if it does damages by destroying boot records, file tables and important data on disk. Backing up important files is a must to prevent from losing all of it due to a virus that spreads on your system, thus, infecting all of the important data stored or saved on your computer’s memory.
Now even portable music players may get viruses as well. According to the Kaspersky Lab website, they have discovered a virus, named Podloso which behaves in this manner:
If the virus is installed on the iPod by the user, the virus then installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. Podloso cannot be launched automatically without user involvement.
Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says “You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus”.
Fortunately, this is only a “proof of concept” virus, which is created for the sole purpose of proving that it is possible to infect a specific platform, and it does not spread on its own; the user has to install Linux on the iPod and save the virus to the iPod for the device to become infected.
There are many anti virus to choose from, whether it is free of charge or with charge. Mushrooming of anti virus helps people to have it installed in their computers to help them update it, but what is the edge of having it installed? One of my cousins asked me why her internet connection is way too slow together with the booting of her computer. I ask her about how much her computer’s memory is. There is no problem about the memory, because it is sufficient. So I consider asking about the internet connection, and it is one of the internet providers that allow highest speed of loading. The last thing I considered to ask is anti-virus system. I ask her if is there any anti-virus installed in her computer. She said no, with that answer, it gave me the idea that maybe there are a lot of viruses attached to her computer that slows the functioning of the internet as well as the booting or loading of her desktop unit.
Having anti-virus software installed on your computer gives you the opportunity to update the vaults of your computer locating now infected areas wherein viruses are attached. It can heal or treat the infected area emptying the vault crammed with virus. It also allows you to be at ease in downloading stuffs from the internet. Anti-virus scans the computer even the hardware such as flash drives that maybe infected by a virus, at the same time healing it if virus is present before making access.
Viruses are no longer confined to your desktop PC and laptop. Recently they have spread to mobile devices as well, since mobile handsets now have a variety of interfaces and data connection capabilities.
Antivirus vendors are beginning to offer solutions for mobile handsets. However it is wise to review anything first before installing it on your handheld, as the scanning process might impact other legitimate applications on the handheld. A good solution is USB and Flash memory-based solutions as they will give you the flexibility of swapping and using these products with a range of hardware devices, not just one unit.
Still stupefied as to what anti-virus program to buy and install? Here is a good test which shows you, side-by-side, the popular anti-virus software and how well they performed based on each of the following criteria, among others:
- Detection of malware samples
- Detection of ad- and spyware
- False positives
- Performance/speed
- Proactive detection of new, unknown malware
Not surprisingly, the winners were AntiVir (Avira), F-Secure, Ikarus, McAfee, Norton (Symantec), Panda, Rising, Sophos, and TrendMicro.
According to studies done by a German computer magazine in 2007, the 17 different anti-virus programs they tested only detected only 20-30% of the malware they introduced on the computers. In 2006, a similar study yielded much better detection rates of 50-60%.
These results are not encouraging and seem to indicate that anti-virus programmers who update virus definition files are not able to keep up with hackers and malware creators. Also, the “bad guys” have easy access to the same anti-virus programs and even free online services that test suspicious files, and thus they are able to test if their creations can get through the latest anti-virus programs before they release them.
Good protection against viruses does not have to be expensive. Some free programs that have won recognition for their anti-virus capabilities are available for you to download for free. Try Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic. According to one reviewer:
AntiVir’s scans are flexible, allowing the user to fully scan all hard drives, choose a preloaded scan–for rootkits, for example–or customize a scan… The quarantine is extensively thorough, too… The help features in AntiVir were excellent, with a description box relaying mouse-over information on each feature. AntiVir’s volume of features might take a while to get used to, but as long as the definitions file updates keep coming, this app’s a keeper.
This has been the source of arguments online for a long time now, but the answer is: yes, some anti-virus programs definitely do. They have to screen every bit of data that enters your computer for potentially harmful trojans, malware, and viruses. Thus they take up CPU resources, memory, and disk activity.
According to this study, the top offender is Norton Internet Security 2006. It delays your boot up time by almost 50%! At second place is McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8, followed at third place by Norton Internet Security 2007.
So does this mean you shouldn’t install anti-virus software? Of course not. Just don’t use those specific products if you want a PC that boots up and runs quickly.
