Viruses & Ethics

I am talking about Computer Viruses, Spam, Spyware, Dialers, Hijackers and other threats that will make trouble for you. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that never had a computer problem.(If so, you could propably stop reading this article if you want, and return to whatever you were doing online).

Anyway, for those who are still reading, I assume that most of them who are using the internet regularly have had one or more "troublemakers" sneaking through their cables and into their computers. I call it "troublemakers", because trouble's all they want. Right? If you think about ethics when it comes to creation of online threats, whether it's a joke, a dangerous virus, or even a spam email, they have an either profitable, educational, innocent or destructive agenda. Some just want to gather general info to learn.
Some are destructive, and some wants to find your private data.(such as bank account info etc.) By saying this I just want you to be aware of that some threats you can easily deal with, but others you just don't want at all.

Personally I do think there are ethics that are followed when creating online threats. But these ethics are only followed by the ethical people. There are all kinds of people on this planet, and most people are ok, but there will always be people with cruel intentions and burning desires of making the most trouble for other people. They exist on the internet as well.

Think of people that are abusing animals for instance. I can't in my wildest imagination understand what emotions that drives them to torture an animal, and that even gives them joy of it. How could I sit at home with my computer and create a virus that will for example destroy maindrives on all computers infected? What Joy will I feel when I know that hundreds, maybe thousands of people looses money, work and time beacuse of my evil creation? I would simply hate myself for that. Infact I would most likely never go as far as to begin to create a Virus. I think I have enough to do by keeping them away from me and others. What I mean to say is that you must be aware of that whether you're nice or not, there are threats out there that you should treat with fear and caution.

Not that I mean to scare you up. I just want to point out three essential things you absolutely should have installed on your computer to be properly secured. A Firewall protection(WinXp comes with a great one included) An Antivirus Solution, and an Anti Spyware software. Read more about these three main categories online on the website described at he bottom of this article.

There is one thing new I feel I need to share with you. There are certain programs that infiltrates your computer, and brings up several Failure warnings. These could be like : "Infected with Spyware. Click Here to Fix Now" - And often signed by "Protection Center" or similar. If you click one of the warnings that constantly pop up, you will be taken to a website to purchase the "needed" software to get rid of these "problems".

What I am about to tell you now is Very Important. Do NOT buy this software. Why? You Ask..Well, this so-called software claims to get rid of all kinds of bugs. But the fact is that THE ONLY THING it does in most cases is to remove itself. This software is made to nfiltrate your computer and show a lot of warnings about your computer's bad health. You see, they give you the disease, and secondly make you buy their remedy. Don't buy, because their software is the problem in the first place.

These things evolve very quickly, so you need to be Watch-out. Do I have a free Solution? Yes, as a matter of fact I do. But I don't like to turn to this solution, but sometimes I have to. Restore your Operating System. Format system-drive(s) and re-install Windows or the OS you use. This have in all my cases worked well. The warnings vanished. First time I was infected with this kind of spyware I remember that I was asked to download and install a Video Codek of some kind. After that something called "Protection Center" told me to buy a specific software to get rid of this problem, and others...This sounded weird.

Windows doesn't have such functions that will notify me that I am infected, and recommend a particular brand for me. (If it could, it would propably recommend Microsofts own software, don't you think?) So I tried to remove it but it was stuck. But it's worth doing a scan with all anti software you posess because maybe you are lucky. If not, it must be the hard way. Do everything that's worth a shot, but please don't go and buy their damned software. It isn't worth a penny.

A good way to spot that you are infected with such a software is when you suddenly see a lot of warnings about the security. You see, normal spyware doesn't make a sound. You won't see it if you don't mean to. Try to run a spyware killer that you trust.(Remember that you should have some kind of Anti Spyware software installed.) If it doesn't fix the problem, try your Anti-Virus software, and run a complete search and destroy. If nothing works, ask a friend with more computerskills than you to help you.

There is No simple solution but to pay the $29, or whatever it costs, and purchase their remedy to get rid of the warnings. Well, you're stuck with software that won't find anything else than the bug that was injected into your computer earlier. You are still unprotected against other threats, unless you have the three applications mentioned above in place.

So to the hard method. Make sure you have a working operatingsystem with working key. Then format your harddrive(s) and install the OS. When you are all done now, I encourage you to secure your computer from the threats out there.