Stopping Virus Infection starts with solid approach to prevention

The simplest approach to stopping computer virus infection is 'do nothing.' Literally. Do nothing ... never turn on your computer, never install software, never log onto the Internet, and never receive email. Just do nothing.

However, since simplicity does not equal reality, there are straightforward steps we can take. Ten good ones are mentioned by author Kenneth L. Bechtel of Team Anti-Virus (see article). He's very thorough.

Simply put, practice safe computing. Do NOT let just anybody use your computer and stick strange floppies/CDs in the unprotected slots. Virus programmers count on the unsuspecting victim to invite their hidden 'malware' into their computer. Scanning software should be used that checks all files before you launch them, remaining silently vigilant in memory until called upon to stop an attack.

Know your enemy when it comes to fighting virus infection

In the war again virus infection, you need to know how the enemy works in order to fight the battles.

Basically, there are several ways viruses are created by malicious programmers. In the least effective method, viruses overwrite the beginning of the infected file with replacement code. However, because most times, the damaged file fails to run, or the computer starts crashing, the victim quickly realizes that something is terribly wrong. Depending on the error messages generated, however, the depth of the problem may be hidden from the user.

Another type of virus alters the end of the file with its code, cleverly manipulating the computer into thinking that everything is fine. In the meantime, the virus loads itself into memory and begins to drain the computer's memory.

And finally, yet another viral approach sees the virus appending itself to the beginning of a file, without making changes to the original. The results of this programming are unpredictable. Sometimes everything seems to run normally, other times it doesn't. It depends on the cleverness of the hacker.

To leave yourself less vulnerable to the willful attacks of these computer vandals, take the time to consider your software, hardware and commonsense approaches to stopping virus infection in the first place. An ounce of prevention now is definitely worth a pound of cure later on.