Virus Protection
Labyrinth Computers Ltd are accredited partners of Trend Micro Inc, believing their products to be superior to any other antivirus solutions on the market. Whether you are a single user with a pc or small/medium business with network servers and clients, labyrinth computers staff are trained in the deployment of any Trend Micro product to keep your personal and corporate data safe from attacks and viruses.
What is a Virus?
A computer virus is a program – a piece of executable code – that has the unique ability to replicate. Like biological viruses, computer viruses can spread quickly and are often difficult to eradicate. They can attach themselves to just about any type of file and are spread as files that are copied and sent from individual to individual.
Besides replication, some computer viruses have something else in common: a damage routine that can deliver the virus payload. While payloads may only display messages or images, they can also destroy files, reformat your hard drive, or cause other kinds of damage. If the virus doesn’t contain a damage routine, it can still cause trouble by taking up storage space and memory, and downgrading the overall performance of your computer.
Several years ago most viruses spread primarily via floppy disk, but the Internet has introduced new virus distribution mechanisms. With email now used as an important business communication tool, viruses are spreading faster than ever. Viruses attached to email messages can infect an entire enterprise in a matter of minutes, costing companies millions of dollars annually in productivity loss and clean-up expenses.
Viruses won’t go away any time soon. More than 10,000 have been identified, and 200 new ones are created every month, according to the International Computer Security Association. With numbers like those, it’s safe to say that most organizations will deal regularly with virus outbreaks. No one who uses computers is immune from viruses.
Email Viruses
Instead of sitting alone in your computer these viruses are intended for rapid replication and will spread faster than you thought possible. Email viruses are pieces of software that arrive in an email to you (possibly called something welcoming like I Love You or perhaps in something innocuous from someone you know) and which when opened are programmed to send themselves to every contact in your address book. These are the viruses that bring large computer systems down as they rampage through before there is time to shut down.
Worms
Cyber worms are incredibly destructive and extremely hard to prevent from entering your system. The creators of worms generally aim to expose failings or holes in a well-known product such as a program or a server. Worms are programmed to seek out these specific holes and crawl inside. They then replicate themselves and go looking for more holes across your network. The Code Red outbreak last year was a classic example of a worm. It replicated 250,000 times in 9 hours.
Trojans
Trojans generally arrive via email in a harmless looking attachment such as a game or a spreadsheet. They roam your hard drive and randomly delete files or generally create mayhem amongst its contents. Trojans can’t replicate themselves automatically – but if you don’t spot you have one you may unwittingly email it and cause destruction in yet another machine. Don’t underestimate the damage and inconvenience that Trojans can cause, particularly within a business setting where the information stored on PC’s is valuable and not easily replaced. Regular system back-ups will help to minimise problems if you do get hit.