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E-Viruses, Digital Worms, and Virtual Firewalls

Worms. Trojans. Spyware. Firewalls. Spam. Viruses. These electronic diseases invade homes, businesses and institutions daily.

Comprehending this high-tech terminology is vital to the health of one's computer and necessary to insure secure communication over the Internet. Proper virus protection can save a computer that would otherwise be vulnerable to a host of network impurities.

A parasite is unsolicited commercial software that is contained within bundled software, obtained through the use of Internet Explorer's Active X, or by exploiting security holes in the browser code. Examples are hijackers, dialers, and spyware.

Hijackers redirect the browser and alter the home or search page. With dialers, the modem calls premium rate numbers, even porn sites. Spyware monitors on-line activities and sells the information to marketing companies. PC-Helpers suggests manually deleting browser cookies and the use of spybot.

Owner of Phoenix company Simple Computer Solutions, Todd James advises downloading free versions of spybot and adaware. "Use both in conjunction with each other. Run them at the same time (once a week) and it clears everything," James said.

Malware is malicious software such as Trojan horses or worms. When encountering these, stop clicking to prevent further spreading and run a full virus scan to isolate and remove the infected file.
Worms attach to outgoing mail or it can send out messages to everyone in an address book.

Worms often carry Trojans and viruses from computer to computer, which leaves one's computer open for a hacker to store data or read any personal files. James pointed out that 90 percent of customers contract worms and viruses from the contents of the email, not an attachment.

According to Page Wise, Trojan horses are harmful viruses that are hidden in innocent programs. Trojans can log every stroke, even offline. This virus can monitor users through web cams, microphones, chat rooms, conferences, and instant messaging. Files can also be deleted and Internet connection can be interrupted.

For protection, Page Wise recommends an anti-Trojan scanner program called the Cleaner, along with Zonealarm firewall protection.

On Tempe's city website it is noted that by May of 2004, 64 percent of email traffic was spam. Compiled email lists are gathered and then sold for use of spam advertisers. Also, spammers often obtain addresses from members of a domain.

Spammers can invade any computer and send mail

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