Virus, Spyware, Adware, Malware
Even with Antivirus protection computers can become infected with viruses & more commonly adware and SPYWARE. This can be a result of outdated virus definitions, involuntarily clicking on adware, or sophisticated viruses that require manual removal. It seems that in today's computing environment spyware and adware are more of a threat to home users. Spyware and adware can be malicious, but more often they're just plain annoying! It just will not leave you or your computer alone. Many times spyware or adware appears to be legitimate, but it is trying to scare you into purchasing some bogus spyware or adware or virus removal tool. It takes some painstaking time & attention to remove it fully from your pc once it has found a home. Geeks of Houston has the tools & experience to clean your computer from virus, spyware & adware to give you a fresh start free from viruses & spyware. We will also protect your computer or laptop from having the same problem in the future.
What is a “drive-by-virus
The term virus is perhapives not fully accurate as it isn't a
particular virus but a method by which some form of malware
(malicious software) can be caught. The drive-by effect is to
make the user run a programme that then has unwanted
consequences. In short, the activity is centred on home wireless
routers where a seemingly anodyne Java applet or Direct-X
control can be used to gain access to a personal computer and
then make it ripe for infection with any form of malware.
How can a computer become infected with a virus?
It is only if a user runs a programme that a virus can be
caught. That is why an e-mail cannot in itself infect a
computer; an attachment, however can as by clicking on it you
may be asking your computer to do just that. With a drive-by
virus, when you open a web page and then accept to run a Java
Applet or Active-X control, you are asking your computer to run
a programme. Fraudsters exploit the fact that many people are
not conscious of what they are doing as many are so used to
blindly accepting to run these kind of add-ons to a web page.
How does a drive-by virus work?
What the virus does is to exploit the way that home wireless
networks are set up to gain access to the computer from inside,
thereby circumventing the protection offered by a firewall. The
effect will depend very much on what the intention of the
malware is but often it leads to capturing details submitted to
a genuine site such as e-banking. This is known as pharming.
There is a distinction to be made with phishing where
data is submitted to a spoof website. Most anti-virus
applications can help in countering phishing but not pharming
because the malware is running inside the firewall.
Where can I get more information?
The phenomenon is not new. Already in December 2006, Symantec
Inc. published a
study
"Drive-by Pharming" in which the process is described and the
vulnerabilities exposed.
Some specialists have run tests comparing different browsers to
see how vulnerable they are to this form of attack but, as it
has been
pointed out,
although updates and upgrades are available which may solve a
part of the problem, there remains a large number of internet
users who do not install these.
At the same time, an
experiment
carried out by IT safety professional Didier Stevens shows that
we compromise our own safety by following links which are
explicitly marked as a way of getting a virus.
How can I protect myself?
Fundamentally, the best form of protection is awareness and
behaving responsibly on-line:
· only visit sites you trust,
· regularly update your browser and anti-virus applications,
· consider not accepting to run controls on web sites or
· disable plug-ins from your browser.
To disable plug-ins in Internet Explorer 7, click on Tools >
Manage Add-ons > Enable or disable Add-ons and then choose which
you want to run or not.
