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September 2000

Evil Eye

Spying viruses run rampant on the Web-arm yourself with anti-virus software

Though you may think that, in never opening shady email attachments, you will not fall prey to a computer virus, you may be enjoying a false sense of security. For those who do not know, or need a reminder, Trojan horse viruses are aplenty in the Internet, and can infect your PC through various seemingly benign surfing. Trojan horses — prevalent versions include “back door orifices” and “punt” bugs — are often password thieves and can be unwittingly downloaded to your hard drive through intentionally virus-laced links to, what appear to be, harmless Web sites. Once your computer is infected, the hacker is alerted every time you go online, at which time he can watch your every keystroke — this means all email, bank transactions and even the sites you frequent are under the cyber criminal’s surveillance. Should the hacker choose to control your computer, for instance, play the CD player or delete files, he has the ability to do so, though, some password thieves prefer to sit back and watch the show unnoticed. A careful Web combing reveals a number of “cleansing” sites, where victims can download virus patches, but beware: many less reputable sites’ shareware is implanted with a Trojan horse! In addition to the world’s largest anti-virus software developers — Mcafee at www.mcafee.com, Norton at www.symantec.com and Dr. Solomon at www.drsolomon.com — a handful of other trustworthy organizations are online to help you diagnose and remove peeping toms from your motherboard. At www.hackerfix.com, administrators stress that they do not condone the downloading of, nor do they offer, free online anti-virus software. Virus warnings, helpful prevention tips and complicated instructions — it is usually best to employ the services of a “techie” — on how to eliminate intruders can be found at www.antivirus.com, www.wired.com, the revered German site www.heise.de and the Web site of the U.S. government agency Computer Incident Advisory Capability, ciac.llnl.gov. The aforementioned sites provide clean links to other authorities, so no horses end up in your C-drive barn.