Molalla Communications | Troubleshooting Virus and Spyware

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AntiVirus and Spyware Resources:

1) What are the differences between Viruses, Spyware and Adware?

2) What is the best way to protect my computer?

3) Security Alerts

4) MCC eNewsletter - monthly virus and hoax information

5) Free AntiVirus Software

6) Free AntiSpyware Software

The easiest way to categorize the different strains of malware is to group them by what they do. A traditional virus is, in many ways, the most unsubtle and obvious of the three. It’s designed to get attention; to poke fun at the user by taunting messages displayed on screen, or to be more destructive, deleting or corrupting files, possible making the entire computer unusable. The virus’ creators are vandals, trying to cause other people trouble.

Spyware is a bit more subtle. They will hide, trying to keep a low profile, but stay on the lookout for what the computer user does online. Visited web sites, the user’s habits online-- all watched, the information gained, used to invade the user’s privacy. Even worse, enter a credit card number, a password, any kind of personal information, and that information can be captured, sent to a remote computer, and used to steal money, accounts, even identities. Less obvious but more dangerous than viruses, these can cause problems even after being cleaned from the computer.

Adware is something that tries to control your online experience. It can pop up advertising, send the computer to a web site the user didn’t want to see, or try to fool the user into buying and installing a useless program that does nothing more than download other advertisements. Although it is the least dangerous of the three categories, Adware is by far the most prevalent.

There is another sort of Malware that shares characteristics with the other three. It can arrive like a virus, disguised as en email from a friend, or a “Trojan Horse,” a program that claims to be useful but is in reality dangerous. It then proceeds to take over the computer completely. Once in place, it can force the computer to send out thousands of spam email an hour; attack other computers; even steal and transmit any information it comes across, all the while controlling every aspect of the computer’s behavior. Once one of these is in place, the owner of the computer no longer controls that computer—the creator of the Malware does.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is much easier to prevent malware than to remove it after the fact. Avoiding questionable web sites; avoiding P2P file-sharing programs; knowing that even emails from a trusted source can’t be trusted—all of these can help prevent malware infection. Another necessary stage of prevention is to run a quality, up-to-date anti-virus program. Commercial suites like Norton Antivirus, Mcafee Virus scan, and Trend Micro PC-Cillin all try to stop viruses and malware before they can gain a foothold. Other programs like Avast! Antivirus, and AVG Antivirus, are freely available and perform the same tasks. All of these will also try to remove an existing infection, but malware fights dirty. Viruses, spyware and adware all have shown the ability to infect and disable computer security software; removal in cases like this can be difficult and time-consuming, if not impossible.

Even the best of the Antivirus programs do not find everything. In addition to the antivirus programs mentioned above (called resident or on-access virus scanners), programs such as Microsoft’s Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Lavasoft Ad-Aware all have their place.

The most effective method of securing a PC versus malware threats is to use a single resident antivirus program—any of the ones mentioned above (running more than one antivirus program at the same time can cause problems). Added to that, a dedicated resident antispyware program like Windows Defender can stop things that the antivirus misses. A third program, Spybot or Ad-Aware, can be used to check, once or twice a month, to see in anything snuck past.

Read warnings on recent virus, hoax or scams that may affect you in MCC's monthly eNewsletter.