Computer Virus Info

What is a virus?
In simple terms a computer virus is a program which replicates itself without human intervention.  Often viruses contain components which act as an engine for scanning and harvesting email addresses found on your computer and sending itself to these addresses in a random fashion.  These unintended email messages sent by the virus frequently contain erroneous "From" lines.  This "spoofing" of email addresses make tracking down the virus' actual source very difficult.  Viruses are often network-aware.  The infected host computer begins a process of scanning its network connections looking for other vulnerable computers to which it can compromise.  Once a computer becomes infected, the results of the infection range widely from simple self-replication to deletion and/or corruption of data on the host machine.

Signs of infection:

• Frequently there are NO outward signs that the machine is infected
• New or unusual windows appearing while booting the computer
• Applications suddenly become sluggish or stop responding
• New files with unusual extensions appearing on your computer

Virus Protection

• McAfee virus protection Software download for Syracuse University students, staff and faculty.
• There are an increasing number of email viruses causing problems—if you receive electronic mail that you are not expecting or is suspicious, just delete it. Computers that ICT manages have virus countermeasures in place, but these are not 100% effective. Your good practices in managing email are the final defense against viruses.

Prevention Tips

• Zip file attachments with emails need to be scrutinized more closely, if you did not request a .zip file, delete it
• On your home computer(s) install and verify your virus protection software is updating itself regularly (at least once-a-week)
• Download software only from legitimate sources
• Don't have folders which are shared openly on networks
• Don't open email attachments with the extensions:
  •  .pif
  • .exe
  • .com
  • .scr

Virus Removal
Stinger is a small executable anti-virus that can be used on top of both MacAfee and Norton to eliminate certain viruses. This is not to be used in lieu of proper preventative virus protection.