Worried about
your PC being infected by the next "MyDoom" Virus?
Today viruses and worms can wreak all kinds of havoc and cause critical
computer problems - all without your knowledge! At the moment,
there
are more than 70,000 viruses in circulation, and hundreds of
new viruses are being discovered daily. And hackers are constantly
discovering new ways to break into your PC.
What is a virus?
It seems like the news is filled with stories about the latest computer
virus and oftentimes it can be overwhelming thinking about how to
protect your PC! So let's start with the basics.
- What is a Virus?
A virus is a manmade program or piece or code that maliciously
changes the way your computer operates, all without your permission.
It is easily spread through e-mail.
- What is a Worm?
A Worm is a virus that generally lives inside other files, often
Word or Excel documents.
- What is a Trojan Horse? A Trojan Horse is a malicious
program that pretends to be harmless. Oftentimes it contains
code that can cause loss of data and theft of personal information.
Know and Dangerous
Viruses, Worms and Trojans
Below is a list of some of the most well known and dangerous viruses,
Trojans and worms.
- Sasser Worm
This self executing worm spreads by exploiting a Microsoft Windows
vulnerability, causing a computer to shut down and reboot several
times. Unlike many recent worms, this virus does not spread
via email. No user intervention is required to become infected
or propagate the virus further.
- MyDoom virus
MyDoom is a high risk mass mailing worm. This destructive virus
contains its own SMTP engine to construct outgoing messages.
It will attach a Zip File which contains a copy of the virus
to outgoing emails. McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 protects against
this virus.
- Bagle (beagle)
Bagle (beagle) is a mass mailing worm that alters the "From"
field in emails and makes it appear as if it's from someone
you know.
- Netsky
This worm lands in e-mail boxes using a number of different
subject lines such as "re:details" or "re:here is the document."
- Dumaru
Dumaru is an email worm. It is a password stealing trojan and
a downloader for an IRC backdoor trojan.
- Mimail.c
Mimail.c is a destructive worm that bears similarities to a
previous worm W32MiMail@MM. Infected users may notice excessive
activity from their machine, or a possible slowdown. This can
occur due to Mimail's mass mailing, or from secondary actions
of the virus sending data to a remote site. Mimail.c emails
itself out as an attachment with the filename PHOTOS.ZIP. Email
addresses are harvested from the victim's machine and infected
messages are sent to the victim's contacts.
- Klez
The Klez worm starts to infect your computer when you simply
open or even preview an email message that carries the virus.
Even more dangerous, is that these emails can appear to be
from people you know and trust. The virus can forge the
"From" field and trick you into opening it. Once your computer
is infected, the virus starts to email itself to addresses found
on your machine and can result in your confidential information
being sent to others.
- Bugbear
This worm spreads by e-mailing itself to the addresses found
on an infected computer. It forges the name in the "From" field
so you may be tricked into opening a supposedly harmless email
from someone you trust and instead wind up with a virus. Once
the virus is on the victim’s computer it can upload, and download
files, run executes, and terminate programs.
- So Big
So Big is the "third most damaging virus ever." It arrives as
an email attachment once opened starts collecting email addresses
from your computer. It then emails copies of the virus to
every address found on your computer. Some of the latest
updates even contain software that can allow hackers to access
the victim’s computer.
- Blaster
The Blaster virus, also known as LovSan, exploits a vulnerability
in several versions of Microsoft Windows. Once your computer
is infected it can cause you machine to re-boot every few minutes
and cause some computers to become unresponsive. It invades
your computer without your consent and increase traffic on your
Internet connection.
How do these
dangers affect you?
While you may have remained untouched in the past, in reality, without
advanced security, you’re leaving everything right out in the open!
So why risk exposing your credit card information,
email address book or the general health of your PC for even one
more day? Get the protection you need with McAfee® VirusScan®,
an easy-to-use antivirus solution providing advanced protection
from viruses, worms, Trojans and more.
