Dear Action Line: My computer has gotten so slow it’s useless, and the repairman said it’s “infected with malicious code,” which he took off of there. I need this computer for my business and want to know how such code can be kept out of it. — N.P., Tulsa.
The folks at US-CERT, Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team, say computer hackers and attackers can corrupt types of files that you would recognize and typically consider safe, so you should take precautions when opening any file.
Corruptible files: These include documents created by word processing software, spreadsheets or image files. After corrupting them, attackers distribute them through spam or files turned up by Internet searches.
US-CERT: When corrupting files, attackers take advantage of vulnerabilities they have discovered in the software that allow them to insert and execute malicious scripts or code without being detected. These vulnerabilities involve specific software on the computer’s operating system. This is an area where US-CERT is very active. It investigates software vulnerabilities and publishes security advisories through its National Cyber Alert System. Go to tulsaworld.com/USCERT, where you can sign up to receive these alerts and the “patches” that fix them. Recent patches for Oracle, Microsoft, BlackBerry and Cisco were offered Tuesday.
Malicious code problems: “Malicious code” includes viruses, worms and “Trojan horses,” and the range of their consequences varies. They are designed to interfere with your computer’s ability to process information by consuming memory or bandwidth, causing your computer to become significantly slower or to freeze; installing, altering or deleting files; giving attackers access to files; or using computers to attack other computers, waging “denial-of-service attacks.”
Protect your computer: Use and maintain anti-virus software that recognizes and protects your computer from known viruses, detecting and removing them before they do damage. As attackers are continually…