Released on: March 14, 2008, 6:53 am

Press Release Author: Sunil Chopra / Chopra net world

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: We believe that computer viruses spread through media.
Actually these viruses effect on our computer. It may be shut down computers & other
damages. Normal viruses can be detected. But some viruses can be detected with
special scan. But our myth is that mass - media spread viruses.

Press Release Body: Could the mass media hype about computer viruses actually make
the problem worse?

If you believe what you hear in the media, there are an awful lot of viruses going
around. No, I\'m not talking about the make-you-sick kind of virus, though they get
plenty of airtime, too. I\'m talking about the kind of virus that enters via your
internet connection rather than your nasal passages.

What the mainstream media often don\'t tell you--at least, in most radio and
television newscasts and in the crucial headlines and opening paragraphs of
newspaper articles-- is that many of these \"viruses\" are not viruses at all.

What Computer Viruses Really Are

The main reason the mainstream media always are in alarm over viruses is that they
tend to call any malicious computer program a virus. In reality, there are at least
eleven distinct types of malicious software, or malware, commonly affecting
computers today. The most common of these are worms, Trojans, and spyware.

So, what\'s the difference between computer viruses and the other types of malware?
The difference is that computer viruses are just about the only ones that regularly
shut down computers and cause other obvious damage. The most common of the other
kinds of malware--worms, Trojans, and spyware--are usually only detectable with a
special scan.

The Real Danger of Computer Viruses

If the other types of malware are so unobtrusive that they can only be detected with
a special scan, then what\'s to worry about? For starters, these programs are called
malicious for a reason: they are designed to cause some kind of damage, if not to
your computer, then to someone else\'s.

Worms are most famously used to damage, destroy, or disrupt other computer networks
than the one on which the host computer is located. For instance, worms have been
used by website owners to shut down rival websites by sending overwhelming numbers
of requests to the computer that hosts that website. Worms have also been used to
send out viruses to other computers, often without infecting the host machine--after
all, what would it benefit the worm to shut down its host computer?

Trojans, in turn, are often used to insert worms and other malware on your computer,
even if the Trojan itself does no damage.

But even if you don\'t care what happens to anyone else, you should still be
concerned about one kind of malware: spyware, a kind of malware that, true to its
name, collects data from your computer and sends it back to a remote host.

Most spyware is only interested in monitoring your internet usage so it can tell
other programs, called adware, what advertising to popup on your computer. However,
there are criminal spyware programs that steal financial data, or perform a thorough
identity theft. Don\'t think you have personal or financial data on your computer?
Some spyware programs contain a key logger, which is a program that copies whatever
you type, usually in order to snatch passwords. Even if you keep no financial
information on your computer, if you ever buy anything over the web, the key logger
would allow its owner to buy stuff using the same information you typed in to buy
stuff yourself.

Why Blame the Media?

Given the danger of all these different types of malware, isn\'t it a good thing that
the mass media are becoming hysterical about it? And can\'t they be forgiven the
sloppy reporting of calling Trojans, worms, spyware, and other malware \"viruses\"?

No, no, no.

This is a classic case of bad reporting doing more damage than no reporting at all.
In this case, the damage bad reporting has done is to promote a common myth that
goes something like this: \"The only malicious software is a virus. Viruses damage
your computer. Therefore, if my computer is working OK, my computer has no malicious
software. I only need to scan my computer for problems when there is a sign of
problems.\"

Thanks to this myth, many people complacently let their antivirus software go months
out of date, not wanting to be bothered with scheduling an automatic update. Just as
bad, many people don\'t have any extra software to combat the other types of malware
that may not be covered by antivirus software.

In fact, it\'s not uncommon for people who have found malware on their computers
after a scan to say, \"But I never had malware on my computer before!\" But how would
they have known if they had never scanned!

Until the biggest mainstream media--and especially television--start educating the
public about the need to have their computers automatically scanned at least daily,
the world will continue to have major, drawn-out problems with malware that could
have been wiped out as soon as soon as the anti-malware software makers discovered
it.

And until that day, the mainstream media will have many more opportunities to run
hysterical stories about \"viruses,\" thereby forcing them to sell more newspapers and
broadcast to even larger audiences of people who suck at the information trough yet
somehow never become full.


Web Site: http://www.100computertips.com

Contact Details: 574, Anand Nagar-A, Patiala, Punjab, India
098555-33169
Chopra.sunil1@gmail.com