Computer Viruses: What Happened?

Computer viruses have become increasingly complex, entering your system unseen and delivering a payload that metamorphosis into several types of threats while opening doorways for others to follow. But how did it get into your computer in the first place?
Social Engineering:
Since the dawn of hacking, the first and most powerful tool at the disposal of the “bad guys” has been social engineering, which comes in the form of email subject lines which you simply cannot pass up opening, or a link to a video so interesting that you upgrade your flash player just to see it, or a document from someone you know. Before you know it the first fifty people in your Outlook address book are getting emails from you that you never sent containing the same subject line, video link or document. The recent Koobface threat to Facebook was based on this exact strategy.
Virus-Infected Files:
Once in your system, the job of a virus is to spread. By injecting themselves into files, like Word documents, these viruses can hope to be spread to other computers along with the file. This goes hand in hand with social engineering in trying to get you to open the file in question. Once opened, viruses can automatically attempt to infect all other files of the same type on your system, making copies of themself and sending them to all your friends. Once opened by a friend in Outlook, the entire cycle begins anew.
Worms:
Worms actively crawl around, looking for places to hide and spread. If you are connected to the Internet, or even a local network with other infected systems, you can be hit by a worm. Worms can spread around the world with alarming speed, exploiting technical vulnerabilities left open by programming mistakes, or programmers who are not rigorously paranoid about security. These “Exploits” can often be patched, which is the biggest reason to make sure you have all your updates in place on a regular basis. Occasionally an exploit will not be fixed right away, leaving millions of people at risk of infection.
Drive-By:
Not just for gangland anymore, Drive-By is a term used to describe what happens when an unprotected system visits an infected website. Just visiting a website can allow a program onto your computer which then infects you. Recently a vulnerability in the Adobe Flash player put more than 80% of the worlds computers at risk of infection until a new version of flash was released almost a week later.
How to avoid this? Your best defense is your BS detector. Tune it in. Avoid emails with suspicious subject lines. Avoid toolbars and downloaders. Never download a video codec or update your player to see that cool clip. Don't just “cruise the web” unless you are certain of your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs and their capabilities; because you may think you're cruising the Information Superhighway, but in reality you're driving down a dark alley in a bad neighborhood.

Michael Stairs, Owner, Go Computer Services, has more than thirty years computer experience and took it personally when he first discovered a virus on his system.

Cloud Computing Forum in SLO

Remember the thrill of your first experience with the “Internet” and surfing “Cyberspace”? A whole new world opened up and

presented possibilities in communication and information gathering that only seemed feasible at a Sci-fi conference. Well the thrill ride of the future continues it’s journey forward and it’s name is Cloud.
Why are corporate giants like Google and Amazon developing an interest in Green Technology? How are non-profit groups using it to save lives? Where does this fit for a small business, local college and saving our county budget?
On Tuesday, July 21, from 4 to 8 pm, the Earth Day Alliance and Information Press will offer the latest global forecast with a peek into the clouds... at a free forum “The Future of Computing: Green, Virtual, and Cloudy”. At 5:30 p.m. guest speaker, Winston Bumpus, Director of Standards in the office of the CTO of VmWare and the President of DMTF, will explain the benefits and applications of the Cloud Computing Model. Before and following the presentation vendors and IT professionals will be available to answer questions, disseminate information, and demonstration how Cloud Computing works.

Portable data storage—

yes, you can take it with you

Remember floppy discs? An early form of data storage, floppy discs came in a number of physical sizes and were designed to allow computer users to move files from one computer to another.

Floppy disc usage has dwindled in the last 10-15 years as newer technologies have produced higher data capacities than the floppy's measly 1.5 megabytes. There are now a multitude of higher-capacity media formats, including Compact Discs, DVDs, Secure Digital Cards, USB flash drives and others.

It's easy to become confused by the selection of portable storage formats. Which is best for your particular need or application? Read on for an explanation of the most popular data storage options.

Compact Discs
The "read-only" compact disc forever changed the music industry in the early 1980s. In 1990, the recordable CD was made available which allowed consumers to make their own compilations of music or data files. Today rewritable CDs can be used to add and erase data files from the same CD hundreds of times.

An individual CD holds approximately 700 megabytes of data, making CDs ideal for storing photos, music files, or business documents. They are inexpensive, which make them a great way to give files to friends, clients, or business associates.

The downside of using CDs to move media from location to location, in addition to their exposure to damage, is their physical size in relation to their data capacity. Many newer storage formats are much smaller and can hold vastly more information.

DVDs
DVDs, like CDs, are available in recordable (DVD-R) and rewritable (DVD-RW) versions. They can be used to store files just like CDs, but their storage capacity is more than six times that of CDs. Not only can you share photos and business documents, DVDs are ideal for sharing videos.

DVDs are relatively inexpensive when purchased in bulk and can be easily shared or mailed to friends.

Be careful when using DVDs though. From my own personal experience, recordable DVDs are not as robust as CDs and must be cared for properly. They tend to scratch easily which can make them unreadable. If you use DVDs (or CDs for that matter) for archival data, it's best to put them in a safe place away from sunlight and inquisitive hands.

USB Flash Drives (Thumb Drives)
USB flash drives have become more and more popular in the last few years as physical sizes decrease and data capacities increase.

Flash drives have no moving parts (a small printed circuit board is enclosed in a plastic or metal housing) making flash drives more reliable than floppy discs, CDs or DVDs.

Flash drives come in capacities of up to128 gigabytes (that's 128,000 megabytes!). That's enough space to hold about fifteen DVD movies, 51,000 high quality photos, or 35,000 music files.

The main drawback of USB flash drives is related to the two features that make them so popular: size and capacity. Because of their high storage capacity, people are inclined to load them up with all of their important files, including sensitive personal, business and client data. However, due to their small size, flash drives are easily misplaced or lost, potentially putting your private data on someone else's computer. Some companies have made policies disallowing the use of flash drives simply to protect company information from falling into the wrong hands.

In their defense, most new flash drives include software that allow the owner to create passwords to protect access to the data saved on the drive.

Memory Cards
Memory cards include a number of competing formats. Most notable in this arena: Secure Digital (SD) Cards, CompactFlash cards, Sony Memory Sticks and xD Picture Cards.

These miniature (usually less than 1" square) formats are best suited for cameras, camcorders and cell phones; however, many new computers and media players like DVD and Blu-ray disc players, come with memory card readers built in, making memory cards a simple way to move and share files on the go.

Because of their size, memory cards are easy to misplace or lose.

Online Storage
A number of online services promise to be the only media storage solution you'll ever need. These services rely on remote servers (computers) to host your data and make it available wherever you may find yourself, whether on vacation in Borneo, or sipping tea in your backyard. The only thing you need is an internet connection and a password.

What sets online storage apart from other storage options is the ability to allow for collaboration between two or more people. Each service has a slightly different approach to allowing others access to your files, so shop around to find a service that meets your needs.

Because online storage is still relatively new, take great caution using it as a reliable place to save your files and never use online storage as a single source to save your data. These services are ideal for saving copies of your backup files or copies of files and photos you may want to access while away from home or the office.

Some popular online services include: Box.net, Drop.io, Mediafire.com, Window's Skydrive (skydrive.live.com), and Dropbox (getdropbox.com).

Greg Perry is the Manager of KCBXnet, a local Computer and Technology Training Center offering classes and internet services. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Q & A on Cloud Computing with Winston Bumpus

Q: What is “Cloud Computing” exactly and how does this impact big business as well as small businesses.

A: Cloud Computing is a relatively new term for a set of things that have been going on for a while now. An emerging definition from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) “Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable and reliable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal consumer management effort or service provider interaction.” This means we are moving to a model of Pay-per-use for things like software and this extends to compute resources such as storage and processing resources. For example, if you need to add new services or increase capacity, you can quickly add them, use them and release them when you are done. This shift in technology usage will allow for rapid deployment of new capabilities at a much reduced start-up cost. It is having impacts on all sizes of business from the small business, which may have a few computers, to very large organizations which need extra capacity or new capabilities in a hurry.

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Computer Viruses: What Happened?

Cloud Computing Forum in SLO

Portable data storage—

Q & A on Cloud Computing with Winston Bumpus

Q: What is “Cloud Computing” exactly and how does this impact big business as well as small businesses.