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Virus Removal – Fake Virus Alerts

There are many warning messages displayed to us while browsing the web (usually in the form of pop-up ads) which claim that viruses are present on our systems. Many of these pop ups try to instill fear into the user by claiming that the viruses can also physically damage your PC.

These warnings are usually elaborate hoaxes that carry no weight at all. This kind of damage is simply not possible. Although viruses can cause considerable damage to the files within your PC, they do not have the capability to physically damage the computer hardware itself. Even in the worst cases of virus infection, as long as your system is thoroughly cleaned (or in severe cases, both cleaned and reformatted), the hardware itself will remain fully functional.

Should you be worried about these warnings?… No. Unless of course you click on them!

Clicking on these warning can trigger a virus to be downloaded, but if you have clicked on one of these messages in error, try not to worry. For the virus to be activated, the code in which the virus is contained must first be executed.

Whether the infected file is contained within an e-mail, a file you have downloaded from the Internet or even a document file, it will require some form of trigger in order to begin harming your system files. This process is not automatically started just by downloading an infected file.

When.exe files containing viruses are executed, the virus code contained inside these files will run, attempting (and often succeeding) to spread the virus throughout your system and across all of the other systems connected to your network. These newly created segments of the virus then attack other areas of your hard drive, duplicating and attaching itself to other programs and files. If these infected files are then shared with other computer users outside of your network, the virus is passed on to them, infecting the recipients computer and increasing the likelihood of the virus being spread to yet more computers.

If you have clicked on one of these warning messages or suspect that a virus may have accessed your system in another way, virus removal must be undertaken as soon as possible as besides having the ability to spread throughout your system, viruses are also capable of deleting or altering your document contents, changing settings and creating and inserting harmful lines of code into your back end system files.

Removing Virus in Your Computer

Nowadays, there are a lot computer virus removal software that have been proven to really do the job. Some can be easily downloaded through the internet while others have to be purchased. For the downloadable ones, it will be just a matter of minutes and the anti-virus is already working on your computer.

Before you go and download anti-virus programs, you have to look into the specific details of it. Others offer more features and keeps your computer much more protected, so choose the one which will really offer you with the best defense against computer virus.

For the ones which have to be purchased in stores, these usually comes in CDs which will be used for installation. Most of the computer virus removal programs already include antivirus and antispyware installer.

It is a brilliant idea to regularly scan your computer for viruses as this will make sure that your computer files and programs are really safe. There are a few common indicators which will let you know that your computer has virus.

If your computer is not responding as fast as it should or if the programs are already working too slowly, this can be because your computer has been infected by virus. Files which you cannot access because it is corrupted can also mean that it contains computer virus. Lastly, another indication of a computer virus is when your computer constantly opens websites which you are not trying to access.

Determine if your computer is infected or not so you can prevent more serious damage to your files and programs. If it is infected, you can easily solve this problem by using your anti-virus software and allowing it to clean up your computer virus. That is, if your computer has not been seriously damaged yet. It is also important to constantly update your anti-virus software so that it would be more efficient in eradicating virus. Whether you are using an anti-virus program which is downloaded or installed through a CD, always make sure that you have the latest version. This is best for detecting even the latest viruses.

Computer virus removal is easy if you just have enough knowledge on computers. Search through the internet first for the best names when it comes to anti-virus software.

The History of Computer Viruses

Computer viruses have a much longer history that most people would imagine. They predate the modern internet although the first viruses were purely technical excises in computer programing. It is not until the advent of large scale internet use that malicious computer viruses started to appear.

The basic theory that underpins most types of PC virus was outlined in John von Nueman’s scienfic paper published back in 1966. The work titled “The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata”. Known as the last of great mathematicians von Nueman had also worked on the US nuclear program and instrumental in developing game theory.

This theory was not used until 1971 when the first ever virus was released across the ARPANET network. The virus called Creeper spread across the network and infected DEC PDP-10 computers. When a computer was infected it displayed a message reading “I’m the creeper catch me if you can.” The program was an experiment and the Reaper virus was released to clean up and remove the Creeper.

The first anonymous virus was the Wabbit released in 1974 a self-replicating program that lead to a computer crash. This was followed by ANIMAL in 1975. This virus was attached to a program called PERVADE and it reproduced itself in the background and spread across computers as the program was shared. Although ANIMAL was a non-malicious virus it exploited holes in the OS of the computer and left the name of the Animal selected by PERVADE in all the directories and files that the user had access too.

The Elk Cloner written by 15 year school student Rich Skrenta exploited issue with the Apple II boot system. The virus is widely viewed as the first large scale computer virus in the wild. In the wild referrers the fact that it was not contained with one lab or network.

The virus spread via the boot disk of the computer and every after every 50 infections of the boot disk it displayed a message in the form of a short poem. Skrenta who went onto a successful career in computer programming described Elk Cloner as dumb practical joke.

After the Elk Cloner infected Apple machine virus that infected IBM computers followed. The ARF-ARF virus arrived in 1983 and the Trojan horse wiped out the computers directory by offering to sort it into alphabetical order. Although the Pakistani Flu virus appeared in 1986 it was the following year that saw a rapid increase in the number of computer infections.

In 1987 the Vienna, Lehigh, Jerusalem, SCA and Christmas Tree Exec viruses all first appeared and attacked different aspects of computer operating systems. Other virus occurred in different locations around the globe. These included the Stoned virus in New Zealand, Ping Pong in Italy and the Cascade virus in the IBM offices in Belgium. This explosion in computer attacks resulted in IBM developing it’s own anti-virus software for the public. Before 1987 IBM’s anti-virus software had been for internal use only.

These early computer infections were only the start of the problems created by PC virus. The rate and seriousness of the infections after the end of the 1980’s has resulted in the creation of the computer security industry.

Tony Heywood ©2012