‘Tis the season to get a virus

The daily news has been saturated with stories on the “WikiLeaks” scandal that resulted in the release of innumerable internal diplomatic messages and the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (for sexual offense charges in Sweden). While government officials blush and hurriedly perform damage control, many people are concerned with anarchist hackers seeking revenge for claimed first amendment infringement. These malicious computer savvy predators have wreaked havoc on commercial sites that have blocked donations to WikiLeaks. Mastercard and Visa websites were fully disabled for a day and PayPal was crippled to an extremely slow pace. Thankfully personal account information was not compromised but these terrifying events raise red flags for Internet security.

It is believed the hackers are using botnets to accomplish these heinous acts against those who oppose WikiLeaks. Botnet comes from the combination of “robot” and “network,” which is a group of computer systems that have been hacked using malicious software that installs worms, Trojan horses or other viruses to gain control of these systems so the “botnet herder” can complete mischievous tasks without being easily identified. Under the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act 1996 disabling a website is against the law.

Viruses are a fear shared by more than just big corporations, everyday Americans can fall victim. The ThinkPoint virus is an example of a crippling computer infection popping up all over the United States and world. It cloaks itself as a fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert and declares that you have a virus and must download the software to remove the infection. Then the Windows desktop will malfunction and no programs will open. The malware will open with repeated scans that identify viruses, which you must pay to download ThinkPoint to rid your computer of the infections. This causes many annoyances such as blocked internet access and inability to open any program without a window popping up saying the program has already been compromised. Beyond the frustration there is fear that your valuable information has been compromised. Computer viruses are a scary invasion of privacy so here are a few steps to avoid the initial infection:

· Never open an e-mail from an untrusted source.

· Do not download software from untrusted sites

· Do not click on unwanted pop-up windows

· Install an Anti-Virus program

· Install an Anti-Spyware program

· Always scan attachments from E-mail or IM before opening them

· Make updates and upgrades occur automatically