The Truth About Viruses

The Truth About Viruses
By: Scott Hendison � Published: August 1999

A computer virus is a program that infects your computer in various ways. The destructive viruses are written or altered by clever computer programmers with a twisted sense of humor or too much time on their hands. Usually both. They are the people who vandalize public bathrooms, taint products in stores and poison candy on Halloween.
Some of these viruses are merely annoying, and even amusing like the Wazoo virus from the late 1980's. If I remember correctly, it was a virus that made the word "Wazoo" appear in your word processor every time the "w" key was depressed. It circulated among students at the University of Washington. It's believed that the virus was written by a practical joker at Washington State University (WSU or Wazoo).

Other viruses, like the recent "Melissa" virus can bring the entire world to its knees and make computer users the world over afraid to check their e-mail. They can infect your computer so as to render it completely inoperative, and even destroy data on your hard drive so that it cannot be retrieved. Now there are viruses that infect more than just your hard drive, but can infect the actual bios chip on your motherboard, leaving you helpless.

In olden times, viruses were spread through physical contact with an infected computer or disk. Somebody had to give you a file or a floppy disk that was infected, or else you had to put one of your disks into a computer that was infected, then put it back into your computer. Viruses spread very slowly, and there was a sure way to protect yourself. Antiviral software could be used to scan disks for viruses before using them.

With the spread of the Internet and e-mail, viruses that used to take a year to get around the globe can be spread to millions with the click of a mouse. The antiviral companies don't have the luxury of moving slowly. Every new virus is a crisis to be dealt with immediately.

Are you nervous now? Don't be. There really is some good news. I'm going to put your fears to rest a bit. You cannot get a virus by opening an e-mail. (***WARNING - SEE BOTTOM) That's right. There is no known way to transmit a virus in the body of an e-mail. All those "warnings" forwarded to you by your well-meaning friends and family are simply not true. In fact, those annoying "warning" e-mails are almost like pesky viruses themselves, written by someone who has nothing better to do, and then forwarded to millions of unsuspecting people.

The danger is not the e-mail, but the file attachment. DO NOT open file attachments from people you do not know. You were taught at a very young age not to take candy from strangers weren't you? Well don't take file attachments from strangers either, and you'll be fine, even if you've read their e-mail. Just delete the e-mail with the attached file, and you will be safe.

Of course file attachments from friends, family and even business associates can be infected too, if their computer is infected. That's how the "Melissa" virus crippled the world for a weekend. For a few bucks you can get an antiviral program at my store (or any software store if you must) and with a little care, you'll be safe from the destructive virus writing weasels.

I actually think that Wazoo virus is pretty funny . . . I guess I'm a little twisted too.

***WARNING*** As of August 2000, you CAN get a virus in a regular e-mail. There does not have to be a file attachment anymore. Isn't technology great?

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