There are a number of categories of computer viruses: Worms, Trojans, Spyware and Adware to name a few. They can be anywhere from annoying to disastrous. None are good. They are generically called malware.
Companies have become very successful at developing software to protect your computer systems from these meanies and they use two standard approaches.
- Dictionaries of virus signatures
- Identifying software that is behaving suspiciously
The virus dictionaries contain identifying signatures of various malware. When a file is created, opened or closed on your computer, it is scanned for any matches in the virus dictionary. If a match is found, then corrective action is taken to either cleanse or isolate the offending area.
For this approach to be effective, the dictionary needs to be kept up-to-date with the latest malware signatures. This is normally done behind the scenes without you having to do anything. This dictionary approach can fail, if it is a relatively new virus that has yet to be cataloged. That’s when the second approach would be utilized.
The anti-virus software continuously monitors the behavior of the software running on your computer and recognizes activities that are peculiar to malware such as writing data to an executable program. When this is found, it again will cleanse the condition or isolate the software.
As ingenious as these anti-virus tools are, they are often matched by the ingenuity of the malware developer. I had a colleague ask me, why do people create those things? I’m sure there is an element of fame or “street cred” within the hacker community that goes along with creating a disruptive virus. Maybe, in the case of spyware, it is an attempt to capture your bank account, credit card or password information.
Every computer in your dental practice should have anti-virus software installed and its signature dictionary should be updated, at least weekly. Also be very careful with what you download to your computer or emails from unknown sources with attachments.
These are right clicks to follow at work and at home.
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