Weedon's Information Technology Services

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Information about computer related subjects (some of these files require adobe to read them)
If the file has problems you may have to download it first then read it.
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Viruses |Types of viruses | File extensions | Email Etiquette | Emoticons | Internet Warning | Glossary |

What is a virus?

Code written with the express intention of replicating itself. A virus attempts to spread from computer to computer by attaching itself to a host program. It may damage hardware, software, or data.

Types of viruses

A virus is a program or code that replicates itself onto other files with which it comes in contact; that is, a virus can infect another program, boot sector, partition sector, or a document that supports macros, by inserting itself or attaching itself to that medium. Most viruses only replicate, though many can do damage to a computer system or a user's data as well.
Worm
A worm is a program that makes and facilitates the distribution of copies of itself; for example, from one disk drive to another, or by copying itself using email or another transport mechanism. The worm may do damage and compromise the security of the computer. It may arrive via exploitation of a system vulnerability or by clicking on an infected e-mail.
Trojan
A Trojan Horse portrays itself as something other than what it is at the point of execution. While it may advertise its activity after launching, this information is not apparent to the user beforehand. A Trojan Horse neither replicates nor copies itself, but causes damage or compromises the security of the computer. A Trojan Horse must be sent by someone or carried by another program and may arrive in the form of a joke program or software of some sort. The malicious functionality of a Trojan Horse may be anything undesirable for a computer user, including data destruction or compromising a system by providing a means for another computer to gain access, thus bypassing normal access controls.
Macro virus
A program or code segment written in the internal macro language of an application. Some macros replicate, while others infect documents.
Polymorphic Virus
A virus that can change its byte pattern when it replicates; thereby, avoiding detection by simple string-scanning techniques.
Hoax
Hoaxes usually arrive in the form of an email. Please disregard the hoax emails - they contain bogus warnings usually intent only on frightening or misleading users. The best course of action is to merely delete these hoax emails. They normally say they are from a major company "microsoft", "AOL", "yahoo" and warn of impending doom. These companies would never send emails to warn of a virus. Hoaxes use you to propagate the "virus" by sending it to your friends.

Warning about the dangers of the Internet

This is a story about some of the dangers of children using the internet. I cannot guarantee that this story is true or who wrote it, but it's very probable. A warning about the internet, is about a young girl who inadvertently gave away enough information about her identity that someone found her. click here to read the file

Etiquette means the practices and forms prescribed by social convention or by authority or the polite way of doing what you need to do. With email there are a number of unwritten rules that people should use. While teaching I found a file that I gave the students to read on email etiquette it is not an exhaustive set of rules and no-one polices them, but it good manners to use them. Click here to read the file