Issue 49.16
These terms are often confused and are a source of frustration, anger and expense to many people. In an effort to help you know the difference and to know how to deal with the various dangers, I am sharing some information that will hopefully be helpful. Make sure you have an up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware program working on your computer. That is the first line of defense.
Viruses are the most destructive and troublesome of the three. Viruses (like the name implies) are spread from computer to computer and actually change your operating system files or other programs. There are a number of different types of viruses. Most standard viruses infect or alter (or even replace) a critical file in your computer. For example, they might insert an instruction or setting into your registry file. The registry is the file that tells your CPU (Central Processing Unit or brain) what programs are supposed to be running, what settings are needed for them to run and what accessories or peripherals such as printers are associated with those programs. This is over simplifying, but you probably see that changing the registry is likely to cause serious trouble.
Viruses typically do not disable your computer since part of their “job” is to run long enough to infect other computers. An exception to this is the “worm” type virus. As the name suggests, it burrows into file after file, corrupting them one by one until it destroys a critical file that the computer requires to run. At that point, the computer stops working and you not only have to find and destroy all the copies of the virus, but you have to repair the damage. This usually requires a computer professional or a complete reinstall of your operating system (Windows 7, Windows 10, etc.) To save any remaining pictures, documents and other important info, you either have to restore them from a backup you already have, or you have to remove the hard drive and install it in a working computer, destroy the virus, then copy any remaining good files onto a backup and restore them once you have wiped the hard drive of all files and reinstalled the OS (operating system).
Malware are usually less destructive types of nuisance files, but some of them can actually damage your computer’s performance. If allowed to multiply in your system, they can become so cumbersome by using up the memory and computing power of the computer that your computer becomes extremely slow or stops working altogether.
Scamware is actually a pop-up advertisement in its format, but there are two reasons they are dangerous and expensive to fix. Pop-up ads usually will disappear if you click on the red “x” in the upper corner and they do not stop you from using your computer by locking your ability to shut down or use other programs. Scamware not only does these two things (which I am amazed the browser programmers such as Microsoft, Google and Firefox have not found a way to stop) but they give you phone numbers to call. Don’t call them! They will ask you for access to your computer and encrypt or destroy your files, then ask you for hundreds of dollars to fix. If you give them the money, they disappear and you are still left with a computer that does not work. Call your computer professional instead.
All these types of problems can be expensive to fix so it is best to avoid them if possible. Don’t open suspicious emails, don’t download or open “free” stuff from unfamiliar sites (pictures, music, movies, games, etc.), don’t fill out forms from unknown sites and, especially important – DO always remember to have a backup of anything important.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 33 years, 26 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently works as a computer consultant. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or shaun@musicomp.net.