2 January 2003

At the end of 2002 we've seen the spread of the Yaha-K worm. While it doesn't break any new ground in viruses, we've expecting this to cause trouble when businesses resume on January 6. This continues a number of irritating trends in viruses.

Yaha uses the tricks pioneered by the Klez virus. The Klez virus will go down as one of the classics, with a number of techniques to spread and ways to hide its tracks. It also started an irritating habit of viruses to clobber anti-virus programs and firewalls.

Viruses like Klez, Bugbear and Yaha have to first get past an anti-virus program before they could damage it. Klez just relied on anti-virus programs that haven't been updated. Bugbear was released on a Friday afternoon so the anti-virus companies hadn't updated their programs when it starting biting on the following Monday. Yaha-K seems to have been released to take advantage of systems that haven't been updated over the extended Christmas/New Year break.

Avoiding Viruses

Most modern PC viruses are spread as e-mail attachments and many of the newer viruses spread quickly. Even if you updated your anti-virus on Saturday, a new virus that started spreading on Sunday may infect you on Monday. You have to rely on your judgement as well as your anti-virus program. Our what are the attachments in your Inbox article discusses what attachments you should avoid opening.

All the old rules of thumb such as "never open an attachment from someone you don't know" and "I use a Mac so I'm immune to viruses" are not true. To protect yourself you need an anti-virus program, the anti-virus program needs to be kept up to date, you also have to use common-sense and follow a few simple rules.

Windows Scripting is the most common tool that virus writers are currently using to infect people's computers. Too many websites rely on Windows Scripting to do away with it completely, but it is a very good idea to disable it within Outlook and Outlook Express. We show how to disable scripts in your e-mail program here.

What is a virus?

So you've been e-mailed a virus. Or is it a trojan? Or a worm? Find out the difference here.

Urban Myths and Virus Hoaxes

Been e-mailed a warning about a dangerous new virus that NASA, Intel and the government are warning about? Click here to read about virus and other Internet myths.

Visit our links page for link to useful anti-virus resources.

Updated 19 April 2002