If you have ever had to clean up your computer to get rid of garbage programs such as browser toolbars and unknown “utilities”, it is important to know how these get on your system so it will not happen again. For the most part, unless you specifically installed these programs, they probably get installed by sneaky installers. For a more in-depth...

You may have seen in tech news articles in the past that Microsoft was working on it’s own release of an anti-virus product to compliment Windows Defender. A couple of days ago their solution, Security Essentials, was released (from beta). Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware,...

Microsoft has just announced some beta anti-virus/spyware/malware protection software called Microsoft Essentials. It’s free and free is good. This software is only available to people running a legal copy of Windows. This is fine. My copies of XP are all legal as is my Windows 7. After jumping thru several hoops trying to download this thing, I sign in...

If you have ever researched free anti-virus tools, you have probably come across an open source application called ClamWin which is built on top of the ClamAV engine. One big feature that ClamWin lacks, however, is it does not have ‘active’ scanning protection. Simply put, files are not automatically scanned when they are opened, you have to manually...

Ever since I personally made the transition to the Apple platform late last year, we have (obviously) had a lot more coverage of Apple here on PCMech. This has helped raise the awareness of Apple products on what used to be a very PC-centric tech site. As a result, I often get asked questions about Apple and OS X by PCMech visitors. Very often these questions...

Anti-virus software mostly works the same way. It scans your hard drive for particular signatures that indicate a known computer virus that is contained in the virus definitions supplied by the company. If it finds a sign of a virus, it will typically offer to quarantine or delete the infected file. Quarantining the file will place it in a tightly controlled...

There are new viruses, worms and trojans coming out all the time. The volume of new virus activity is actually pretty staggering. Some worms and viruses end up becoming more famous than others due to the speed of spread or the type of damage it causes. This, of course, is what the creator of the virus wanted – media coverage and notoriety. The larger majority...

There are a lot of different worms and viruses out there. You may think that the entire thing is beyond your control. However, it really is no more beyond your control than a biological virus. A biological virus, when it infects the host, becomes apparent by way of certain observable symptoms. You are not going to get a little notification on your screen saying...

Not all computer viruses are equal. After all, virus writers are often trying to impress their colleagues. Nobody would be impressed if they all did the same thing. So, yes, there is a lot of variety, not only in what the viruses do, how they spread, but also in methodology. We can classify this whole area into the following: [hidepost=1]Computer virus. A...

All computer viruses have an author. It was programmed by a real live person with the sole intent of creating a piece of software that will function like a virus. The people who create computer viruses are fairly tech inclined as they obviously have good programming skills. In fact, some virus programmers are actually employed as programmers. They are not...

Introduction With an increasing trend towards computer and internet security awareness, mainstream consumers are left scrambling for ways to protect their system. Traditionally, Symantec has released the most popular security software offering – the Norton AntiVirus series. Sound familiar? You’ve probably also heard of McAfee’s and Trend...