Virus Season

We all know cold and flu season comes in winter and our allergies usually peak in the springtime. � Have you noticed your PC or MAC is more likely to get sick at certain times too? � Computer viruses definitely have seasons . � They are more commonly known as Summer Vacation, Spring Break, and the Christmas Holiday. While there are major hacking wars taking place behind the scenes between government agencies and world wide corporations all the time, we are not privy to that information, nor would we want to be. � That`s the big-time stuff Hollywood educates us about through films like ��Swordfish.

�� � It`s dangerous business best left to the big boys for handling while the rest of us blissfully stick our heads in the cyber sand and carry on with our game playing, Instant Messaging and web surfing.

The computer viruses so often created by high school and college students during down times in their academic schedule are what affect most of us personally through our home and office computers. � A virus is malicious code; software written with the intent to do harm. � They can enter your computer by sneaking in attached to a real program or via E-mail, usually from a name you are familiar with. � These are the viruses which hide in your computer and send out replications of themselves to all the names in your address book. � Your friends and family get treated to the same infection by opening what they believe is a message from you. There are ��worms�� which thrive on computer networks by seeking out security holes in each terminal and reproducing itself there. � ��Trojan horses�� are programs often disguised as something fun, like a game. � While a Trojan cannot duplicate itself, each time it is executed it does major damage like erasing everything on your hard drive. ��

When asked why they write virus code, most young creators have answered, ��Because I can.�� � They are achieving world wide fame by being smarter than us. � Let`s face it, anyone on the planet with a computer has heard about the MSBlaster and the SoBig viruses. � The Melissa virus forced Microsoft to shut down its E-mail systems for a short period in 1999 and in 2000 the ILOVEYOU virus, or ��Love Bug,�� was written by two students from the AMA Computer College in Manilla. � Does anyone think these two boys from the Philippin