COMPUTER VIRUSES: FUNDAMENTALS AND PREVENTION
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE INTRODUCTION PART I: EVALUATING YOUR VIRUS SITUATION CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING VIRUS RISKS CHAPTER 2: DOES MY COMPUTER HAVE A VIRUS? CHAPTER 3: DOES YOUR COMPUTER HAVE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE? PART II: DEPLOYING YOUR ANTIVIRUS DEFENSES CHAPTER 4: OBTAINING AND INSTALLING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE CHAPTER 5: CONFIGURING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE CHAPTER 6: SCANNING YOUR COMPUTER AND E-MAIL CHAPTER 7: RIDDING YOUR COMPUTER OF VIRUSES PART III: MAINTAINING YOUR VIGILANCE CHAPTER 8: UPDATING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE AND SIGNATURES CHAPTER 9: INSTALLING SECURITY PATCHES CHAPTER 10: USING FIREWALLS AND SPYWARE BLOCKERS CHAPTER 11: PROTECTING PDAS FROM VIRUSES CHAPTER 12: INCORPORATING SAFE COMPUTING PRACTICES PART IV: LOOKING AT VIRUSES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE CHAPTER 13: VIRUSES AND THE LOSERS WHO WRITE THEM CHAPTER 14: TROJAN HORSES, WORMS, SPAM, AND HOAXES CHAPTER 15: HOW VIRUSES FUNCTION AND PROPAGATE PART V: THE PART OF TENS CHAPTER 16: ALMOST TEN MYTHS ABOUT COMPUTER VIRUSES CHAPTER 17: TEN ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS ABOUT THIS BOOK HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK WHAT YOU’RE NOT TO READ MEANINGS OF THE TERM “VIRUS” FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK WHERE TO GO FROM HERE WRITE TO US! ASSESSING THE THREAT TO YOUR COMPUTER WHICH OPERATING SYSTEM ARE YOU USING? DO YOU INSTALL SECURITY PATCHES? HOW MANY PEOPLE USE THE COMPUTER? HOW IS YOUR COMPUTER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET? DO YOU HAVE A FIREWALL? HIGH-RISK ACTIVITIES DECIDING HOW MUCH SECURITY IS ENOUGH LOOKING AT COMMON VIRUS SYMPTOMS COMPUTER TOO SLOW UNEXPLAINED ACTIVITY CRASHES OR HANGS WILL NOT BOOT STRANGE COMPUTER BEHAVIOR TOO MANY POP-UP WINDOWS FINDING AND FIXING A VIRUS DEVELOPING GOOD HABITS KEEPING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE UP TO DATE SCAN FOR VIRUSES PERIODICALLY INSTALL SECURITY PATCHES WORKING ON GOOD COMPUTER HYGIENE BLOCKING MALICIOUS NETWORK TRAFFIC WITH A FIREWALL BLOCKING SPYWARE DO YOU HAVE A PDA? FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT VIRUSES UNDERSTANDING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE LOOKING AROUND FOR ANTIVIRUS ICONS LOOK IN — OR HUNT FOR — THE SYSTEM TRAY LOOK ON THE START MENU LOOK ON THE DESKTOP LOOK AT INSTALLED PROGRAMS ASKING AT YOUR PLACE OF PURCHASE CHECKING THE HEALTH OF YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE STEP 1: DETERMINING WHETHER YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE STARTS AT BOOTUP STEP 2: DETERMINING THE VERSION OF ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE STEP 3: FIGURING OUT WHEN THE LAST UPDATE OCCURRED STEP 4: FIGURING OUT WHEN THE LAST SCAN OCCURRED STICKING WITH NAME BRANDS YOU KNOW CONSIDERING IMPORTANT ANTIVIRUS FEATURES FEE OR FREE SUBSCRIPTION? SCANNING: MANUAL AND SCHEDULED COMPATIBILITY WITH YOUR E-MAIL PROGRAM VIRUS-DEFINITION UPDATES FIX AND RECOVERY BUNDLING OTHER FEATURES UPGRADING AND SWITCHING BRANDS REASONS TO UPGRADE REASONS TO SWITCH BRANDS UPGRADING OR SWITCHING BRANDS SAFELY CHECKING OUT THE PURCHASING VENUES BUYING AT COMPUTER STORES BUYING ONLINE INSTALLING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE FOLLOWING A TYPICAL INSTALLATION SEQUENCE CREATING RESCUE DISKS SETTING YOUR COMPUTER BOOT OPTIONS ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM STARTS AT COMPUTER’S STARTUP SCANNING COMPUTER MEMORY SCANNING FLOPPY DISKS AND CD-ROMS CONFIGURING AUTOMATIC PROTECTION SCHEDULING SCANS WHEN TO SCAN MANUAL OR AUTOMATIC? WHAT TO SCAN SCHEDULING UPDATES HOW YOU CONNECT TO THE INTERNET HOW OFTEN TO UPDATE CONFIGURING HEURISTICS CONFIGURING E-MAIL PROTECTION CONFIGURING INSTANT MESSAGING PROTECTION DECIDING TO SCAN YOUR COMPUTER FILE-BY-FILE SCANNING FOR VIRUSES SCANNING THE ENTIRE COMPUTER SCANNING A FILE OR DIRECTORY HOW OFTEN TO SCAN EVALUATING ONLINE SCANNING SERVICES SCANNING E-MAIL SCANNING OUTBOUND E-MAIL DETECTING VIRUSES IN E-MAIL INTERPRETING WARNING MESSAGES WARNINGS ABOUT INCOMING E-MAIL WARNINGS ABOUT INCOMING FILES WARNINGS RESULTING FROM A VIRUS SCAN FINDING QUARANTINED FILES REPAIRING YOUR SYSTEM DETERMINING THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE REPAIRING DAMAGE GETTING A SIGNATURE UPDATE ONSLAUGHT OF THE NEW VIRUSES UPDATES (HAD BETTER) HAPPEN ENGINE UPDATES, TOO WHAT VERSION DO I HAVE? HOW IT GOES (EXAMPLE SCENARIO) DECIDING HOW OFTEN TO GET UPDATES GETTING UPDATES MANUAL UPDATES AUTOMATIC UPDATES SCANNING AFTER AN UPDATE FIGURING OUT WHY YOU NEED SECURITY PATCHES ADDRESSING VULNERABILITIES CLOSING THE HOLES SIMPLIFYING UPDATES SCRUTINIZING SECURITY PATCHES PREPARING TO INSTALL SECURITY PATCHES INSTALLING SECURITY PATCHES DOWNLOADING FROM WINDOWS UPDATE GETTING OFFICE PATCHES FROM MICROSOFT OFFICE UPDATE USING WINDOWS AUTOMATIC UPDATE DOWNLOADING PATCHES FROM THE MICROSOFT SECURITY WEB SITE DOWNLOADING PATCHES YOURSELF PATCHING OTHER COMMON PROGRAMS INSTALLING SERVICE PACKS REMOVING PATCHES PROTECTING YOUR COMPUTER WITH A FIREWALL HOW FIREWALLS WORK SOFTWARE FIREWALLS HARDWARE FIREWALLS DEALING WITH SPYWARE FIGURING OUT HOW SPYWARE INVADES YOUR PRIVACY USING SPYWARE BLOCKERS PDAS GROW UP (AND GROW VULNERABLE) UNDERSTANDING WHY ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE IS NEEDED FOR PDAS SYNCHRONIZING DATA WITH PCS SURFING THE ’NET FROM A PDA BECAUSE I SAID SO INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE ON PDAS PROTECTING YOUR PDA IN OTHER WAYS TURNING OFF WIRELESS AUTO-CONNECT AVOIDING AD-HOC WIRELESS NETWORK CONNECTIONS DISABLING INBOUND FILE TRANSFERS CONFIGURING PASSWORDS USING SECURE SYNCHRONIZATION SETTINGS AVOIDING FRIVOLOUS DOWNLOADS (OR, BEWARE OF FREE PROGRAMS) PROTECTING AND SECURING YOUR COMPUTER BACKING UP YOUR DATA REGULARLY GETTING UP TO SPEED ON BACKUPS BACKUP TIPS AND STRATEGIES DEALING WITH THE WINDOWS BACKUP PROGRAM DECIDING ON THIRD-PARTY BACKUP PROGRAMS COPYING FILES TO A CD OR DVD COPYING FILES TO A FLOPPY DISK INSTALLING ONLY PROGRAMS KNOWN TO BE SAFE SAVING YOUR LICENSE INFORMATION SECURING YOUR WEB BROWSER INTERNET SECURITY ZONE PRIVACY SETTINGS KEEPING ALTERNATE E-MAIL ACCOUNTS SURFING THE WEB SAFELY SHARING PERSONAL INFORMATION CAREFULLY ADDING PARENTAL INTERNET BLOCKERS AVOIDING SPAM BLOCKING SPYWARE USING PUBLIC COMPUTERS SCANNING PUBLIC COMPUTERS FOR VIRUSES SCANNING PUBLIC COMPUTERS FOR SPYWARE STAYING CLEAN AND CLEANING UP INVASION OF THE COMPUTER VIRUSES A LONG TIME AGO IN HOBBY ROOMS FAR, FAR AWAY EARLY VIRUSES GET AGGRESSIVE HOW VIRUSES HAVE EVOLVED WITH THE TIMES HOW EARLY VIRUSES SPREAD FROM COMPUTER TO COMPUTER STOWING AWAY ON FLOPPY DISKS SNEAKING IN VIA BBSS THE PEOPLE WHO WRITE VIRUSES WHY THEY WRITE ’EM HACKER SOCIAL VALUES (SORT OF) THE ORIGINS OF ANTIVIRUS TOOLS TROJAN HORSES: MISLEADING TRICKS IDENTIFYING A TROJAN HORSE HOW TROJAN HORSES FUNCTION PHISHING SCAMS: SKILLED IMPOSTERS WORMS: VIRUSES ON AUTOPILOT HOW WORMS FUNCTION DEFENDING AGAINST WORMS HOSTILE WEB SITES: CAUTION — CONTAINS POISON SCAMS AND FRAUD HOAXES: PREYING ON GULLIBILITY TYPES OF VIRUSES FILE INFECTOR STEALTH VIRUSES BOOT SECTOR MACRO HOW VIRUSES PROPAGATE FLOPPIES AND CD-ROMS FILE SERVERS E-MAIL INSTANT MESSAGING WORD AND OTHER DOCUMENT TYPES WEB SITES NEWSGROUPS PIRATED SOFTWARE WIRELESS NETWORKS MY COMPUTER STOPPED — I MUST HAVE A VIRUS I HAVE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, SO MY COMPUTER CAN’T GET A VIRUS ALL VIRUSES ARE DESTRUCTIVE VIRUSES CAN DAMAGE COMPUTER HARDWARE VIRUSES CAN HIDE INSIDE DATA FILES PICTURES CAN GIVE YOU COMPUTER VIRUSES I NEED MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE PROGRAM TO BE FULLY PROTECTED YOU CAN’T GET A VIRUS FROM AN OFFICIAL SOFTWARE CD ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE COMPANIES CREATE VIRUSES SOME COUNTRIES SPONSOR VIRUS WRITERS AND HACKERS COMMAND ANTIVIRUS ETRUST EZ ARMOR F-PROT FOR WINDOWS F-SECURE KASPERSKY MCAFEE NOD32 ANTIVIRUS SYSTEM NORTON ANTIVIRUS PANDA ANTIVIRUS PLATINUM PC-CILLIN VEXIRA ANTIVIRUS FOR WINDOWS