What are the most common ways to get a virus?
One of the most common ways to get a computer virus is by booting from an infected diskette. Another way is to receive an infected file (such as an EXE or COM file, or a Microsoft Word document or Excel spreadsheet) through file sharing, by downloading it off the Internet, or as an attachment in an email message. What should do when get a virus? First, don’t panic! Resist the urge to reformat or erase everything in sight. Write down everything you do in the order that you do it. This will help you to be thorough and not duplicate your efforts. Your main actions will be to contain the virus, so it does not spread elsewhere, and then to eradicate it. If you work in a networked environment, where you share information and resources with others, do not be silent. If you have a system administrator, tell her what has happened. It is possible that the virus has infected more than one machine in your workgroup or organization.
LaLonde: Right now, the most common way to get a virus is by trading e-mail and sending documents around. Again, this goes back to the popularity of Microsoft Office. A lot of people are using the same word processor, the same spreadsheet. So they attach a file to e-mail, and the person opens an infected file at the other end. It’s one thing if you spread viruses around in your department, or if you spread viruses even within a company – you can kind of keep a handle on that. But once you start sending e-mail and attachments around to your customers and your business partners, it gets to be a real big problem. Japanese companies are starting to understand that there are things they have to do to make sure that their data is clean. It’s a security issue. The need for security gets a lot of lip service in the press today, but my impression is that most companies are reluctant to spend money for it. LaLonde: I think that’s a valid point.
