Viruses A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "I love you”, “Me, nude.", “Congratulations” or “Get slim now” and so on. Viruses can also replicate themselves.
What is a virus?
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Viruses A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "I love you”, “Me, nude.", “Congratulations” or “Get slim now” etc. Viruses can also replicate themselves.
What do I do about a suspicious attachment?
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Be vigilant of opening attachments in emails, even from people you know. Most viruses spread when an attachment is opened that contains a virus.
What are hoaxes?
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Hoaxes are not viruses, but are usually deliberate or unintentional e-messages warning people about a virus or other malicious software program. Some hoaxes cause as much trouble as viruses by causing massive amounts of unnecessary e-mail.
Most hoaxes contain one or more of the following characteristics:
Warnings about alleged new viruses and its damaging consequences Demands the reader forward the warning to as many people as possible Pseudo-technical "information" describing the virus Bogus comments from officials: FBI, software companies, news agencies, and so on.
What are email scams?
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There are many emails circulating claiming to be banks or building societies that ask you to log in via a link in the email or request your ID and password. Never
You will never
Common scams also include foreign persons asking for money or sponsorship.
There are also emails circulating asking to reply to the email with your full domain username, password and email address otherwise your account will be disabled or deleted. As with the bank scams, never
Emails asking you to forward an email to everyone you know are called Hoaxes and can cause massive amounts of unnecessary e-mail.
If you receive emails like these and are unsure what to do, then please contact the Information Service Desk before replying to the email.
What is spoofing?
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If you have recently received an email claiming you have sent a virus from the University email system, then your email address has been spoofed.
Today there are many viruses that use the technique known as spoofing. When a certain type of virus or worm infects a machine, it gathers all email addresses from that machine and then uses these addresses to send as the From: address. Users then may receive emails of warning or complaint or also undeliverable emails saying that they sent an email or virus to someone, when they never did. In this case the best action is to delete the email without responding to it.
What is a Trojan?
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A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive. Many people use the term to refer only to non-replicating malicious programs, thus making a distinction between Trojans and viruses.
What are worms?
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Not the obvious answer! Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
