(Blogger moms) What is a Computer Virus?

September 24th, 2009 admin Posted in internet |

By Marlin Rollins

Over recent years, computers have become synonymous with viruses and viruses don’t show any signs of disappearing any time soon. In recent news, LiveScience dot com reported that “Before the month is even done, April has set a record for virus e-mails.”1 In the past, we would be comfortable in telling new computer users not to worry about viruses and that catching a computer virus is rare. Today, that would be some of the worst advice we could give anyone. As reported in countless news reports, computer viruses are rampant and they’re extremely worrisome. This article will describe what viruses are and then point you in the direction of some rather unique protection and prevention.

In short, a computer virus is a software program designed to destroy or steal data. It attacks computers via distribution - often unknowingly - through email attachments, software downloads, and even some types of advanced web scripting. Viruses that destroy data are known as Trojan horses, viruses that explode their attacks are called bombs, and viruses that duplicate themselves are called worms. Some viruses are a combination of each, however they can be further identified according to where they’re located on a computer.

A virus originating from the boot sector of a computer is a boot-sector virus and this nasty devil does its dirty work the moment a computer is turned on. A virus that attaches itself to (infects) other programs is a file virus and activates the moment that an infected program starts. File viruses may also be referred to as parasitic viruses, however should a virus work from both the boot-sector and from an infected program, the virus is then known as a multipartite virus.

Why viruses exist remains a mystery, however we had privy access to the mind behind a virus programmer who explained his motivation behind his destructive inclinations. Apparently, this person had a deep grudge against a popular online service which shall remain unnamed. In this hacker’s mind, the online service failed to do a quality job in protecting children from online smut and as retaliation, he created and distributed a virus to as many file libraries of this service as he could. His intentions were to disable the computers of the online service’s users so much that they wouldn’t be able to connect for days. In his mind, the loss of connection meant loss of revenue for the online service.

Although the malicious code that this person generated may have worked for a small percentage of users, sufficed to say, the online service continued on and still exists today. Despite his motivation or intention, his efforts were null.

We wouldn’t be surprised to learn if other motivations behind spreading viruses were similar to this person’s, but that doesn’t justify the damage that viruses do. Innocent people become pawns for the evil plans of others who’ve convinced themselves they’re doing the “right” thing.

To protect a computer from getting a virus, or clean a virus from a computer system once infected requires the use of an antivirus utility. But may be something else we can do. Perhaps we could make an effort to educate the people who want put viruses into the public about ways to display dissatisfaction with a service or product that don’t involve harming innocent parties. In doing so, we just might reduce the number of virus news stories and protect our own investments at the same time.

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Small Business Pitfalls of Banner Advertising

By Nazir Daud 1

Despite what you might sometimes hear, banner advertising is still very successful for many small businesses, but only if carried out in the right way. What is the right way, and how does your business avoid the pitfalls of advertising on the internet? The answer is to understand the customer more than many advertisers seem to. There are very many examples of poor advertising on the internet. It is only by being aware of the poor tactics used by those businesses that fail to understand their visitors that you can make sure your own banner advertisements are successful.

An example of a banner advert can be found on the overwhelming majority of web pages across the internet. However, of course, prevalence is no testament to either quality or success, and in many cases, neither attribute seems very evident. Most people have become utterly tired of the clichd banners flashing like a Las Vegas neon sign that is trying to outdo the rest of the website. Typically, these adverts congratulate the visitor on being the 100,000,000th visitor to see the advert, in which case you feel deeply sorry for the other 99,999,999 people who have also had to risk having a seizure and getting nothing for their trouble!

Similarly, banner adverts which try to frighten potential customers into clicking on them have tended to become shunned, ignored or blocked, such as those suggesting that, in the microsecond since the web page was loaded, they have managed to scan your entire hard drive and discover a virus which was evidently missed by that expensive, award winning anti-virus software you keep updated every day.

Visually nauseating banner adverts, or those which either try to frighten people into clicking no longer have very successful click through rates, and do more harm than good. Yet banner adverts persist. Why? Simply because there are enough examples of good and effective advertising out there that work, for them to remain economically viable.

It takes a great deal of thought and effort for a small business to achieve success with this form of internet advertising. Avoiding repulsive flashing colour themes, fear or trickery are just the first pitfalls to avoid. Another major problem is trustworthiness. Most visitors tend to view banner advertisements with a deep sense of distrust. Youre already starting on the back foot, having to somehow persuade the visitor you are trustworthy, honest and reliable, intent on doing no harm, nor of assaulting the senses or of pulling some kind of unpleasant stunt. All this in a handful of words and a small image is asking a lot, but it is possible.

One of the other dangers banner advertisers tend to leap into like lemmings having a bad day is trying to fool the visitor into clicking the advert. This isnt quite the same as frightening them into clicking the advert by making it look like a virus alert or system message, but in visually disguising the advert to appear as though it was a genuine portion of the website. This is not a tactic which your business should employ.

The reason is because visitors do not like being deceived. Clicking on a link because it looks like part of the website menu, and then finding that youre whisked off to a website far, far away on a server somewhere in Eastern Europe is not a good way to encourage repeat visitors.

Remember, your banner advertising is often the very first impression people receive of your business. Take a good long hard look at your internet adverts, and ask yourself if that really is how you want your business to be perceived by your potential customers.

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