I stared at my computer with fatigue. Neck creaking, back aching, I glanced at the clock and realized that I had been writing for fourteen hours. As far as I could remember, I’d gotten up just twice to hit the bathroom, and I guessed that the big mug of ice water had been replenished by my boyfriend, who sometimes takes better care of me than I do myself. It was time for bed.

But first, I wanted to check my e-mail. For almost a week, I hadn’t paid much attention to anything but the project I was trying to finish, and that pile of unread e-mail was getting larger and larger. Wearily I scrolled through the messages. The usual collection of listserver digests, wicked jokes, and notes from friends.

Suddenly I sat bolt-upright in my chair, intense need for sleep momentarily forgotten. A message --- one that had been sent five days prior --- had caught my eye. It had been sent by a friend whose judgement, in matters Internettish, I trust implicitly. The subject line struck terror in my heart: “Beware: Win95/CIH Virus To Strike July 26!”

I looked again at the clock. An hour and a half till midnight.

EEEEEEEEEK!!!

Protect Yourself!

A computer virus is a piece of software that has been written to surreptitiously enter a computer system and "infect" its files. Some viruses are benign and won't harm the system, while others can damage or destroy data. Commonly, viruses recreate themselves over and over, infecting the files and systems they encounter like a sort of virtual plague.

Most viruses enter computers through files transmitted on a floppy disk, or through Internet downloads. A common myth about viruses is that they can only be transmitted through executable program files. However, macro viruses can exist inside any document whose application uses a macro language (similar to the Microsoft Word "Concept" virus, which can be transmitted in an infected Word document).

New users commonly worry about opening e-mail from strangers. A virus cannot be transmitted in the body of an e-mail message. If you get e-mail from somebody you don’t know, go ahead and read it --- but if it has an attachment, handle it as if it’s a spitting cobra. While an infected program can be attached to e-mail, the message itself cannot contain a virus in any form that can be executed.

It is estimated that over 17,000 different viruses exist. Some of them, like July’s Win95/CIH virus, are absolutely deadly. However, only about 40% of PC users have installed anti-virus software on their computers. Which is, of course, rather stupid. There’s good AV software out there, and most of it is very inexpensive. These programs check your system for known viruses, scan incoming files, and warn you before any infected files are let in.

If you are serious about protecting your data, use AV software that offers regular updates of new viruses. Check out the National Computer Security Association’s current list of approved anti-virus software, at www.ncsa.com/avpdcert.html, and then download your selected program from www.Tucows.com.

After you download and install your AV program, have it scan your hard drive for infected files. It will identify files tainted by any virus it recognizes, and offer to repair them. In some cases, infected files can be “cleaned”; others will have to be deleted.

When you’ve determined that your system is clean, you’ll want to do everything you can to keep it that way. First of all, be careful about the files you place on your system, whether from floppies or the Internet. Set the preferences in your AV software so that floppies will be scanned automatically when they are inserted into the drive. Ditto your downloaded files and e-mail attachments. Automatic scanning is critical. Also, remember to visit your AV software vendor’s website currently for program updates. Most of the time, you can download the updates directly from the website.

The New Germ On The Block

First identified by a British virus research laboratory, the CIH virus is particularly insidious. It attacks the software code stored in flash BIOS chips, overwriting the part of the program that runs first when the system is powered up or reset. As a result, the virus can render a computer unbootable-- it just won't start up at all when the power is turned on!

This past February, I lost every single file on my hard drive (see Joyride #13 in the May issue of the Internet Gazette for details of this tragedy). Since then, I have been particularly protective of every single tiny little byte of information I’ve fed to my computer. When I got the message about CIH from my buddy the powergeek, I was, needless to say, a little nervous. I quickly downloaded the newest set of virus strings, which included those for the CIH virus, from my AV vendor, and ran the program. I held my breath and waited for midnight. I was lucky. My system was clean!

Good Times, Penpal Greetings, Win A Holiday... do any of these sound familiar? Please join me next month as I explore hoax viruses — the funhouse of the world of cyberplagues.

Caroline Wright, of WRIGHT FOR YOU Word Services, is a freelance writer. A former resident of Hawaii, she now lives in rural South Carolina. Feel free to e-mail your comments to Caroline at cw@wrightforyou.com.