by Gordon Eldridge

Created on: July 05, 2008

Yes, an infection by a computer virus can shut down your computer. The traditional "virus" may not be able to, but it can be carrying a "payload" which will possibly rewrite the hard drive or corrupt it beyond booting up. Code writers these days have gotten to be very creative in the way that they create a virus or a Trojan or some other version of malware.

The fact that over ninety-five percent of the computers built run on Microsoft software is the reason for these infections. Once you learn to code for any of the vulnerabilities that may be exploited in Windows, you can infect millions of computers worldwide. Before a "fix" for that code is out, there will be a lot of damage done if the virus was capable of doing any. It may "only" clog up e-mail systems with lots of traffic or it could carry a small vb code package which could do lots more damage and look like a system file.

IT departments have more to do than go around cleaning up after night-shift downloads. I know because that is what I usually have to do. I leave on Friday with most of the computers working and come back on Monday with more problems than I had last week. Granted, it is great for job security but it does get tiresome, especially when you are the only one in the IT department.

There are other operating systems out there which will do the job for most businesses, medical or otherwise. Particularly, Linux. I know there are many versions of Linux, hundreds actually, but none of them can be infected with a virus. Especially when it was written for Windows in the first place. If enough people began using Linux distributions, no matter which one, viruses would eventually be written for it as well. But, since most if not all versions of Linux require that you use it as a regular user and not as "root" or the administrator, a virus would not be able to do much damage.

There are some versions of Linux which are "hardened" so that it would be nearly impossible to infect it let alone do any real damage. In my opinion, it would be a good idea for computer users to install Linux on their computer and use it for ordinary tasks like e-mail, since that is where most viruses get started. If you have to use Windows, your Linux distribution will give you access to it after installation and you can boot into it when needed. This approach would at least give more people exposure to Linux and possibly give you an alternative to use rather than forking out over one hundred dollars for the Vista upgrade.

I know that most people get their Windows with a computer since it is nearly impossible to find a computer without Windows on it, although I do keep trying. In conclusion, the best defense against viruses is a good anti-virus program. Please install one, it can help so much.

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