What are the different ways you can get a virus?


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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

Hang around sick people.

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"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17

The Giant Internet IC Masturbator - Index of IC pinouts
Catalog of Electronic Components - Complete IC data sheets
National Electrical Code (NEC) Online - Don't do wiring without consulting it. OR ELSE!

[This message has been edited by DogSRoOL (edited February 12, 2004).]

Well I got that one right now. What about on my comp?


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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

btw, I know you can get a virus by having Windows (LOL!!) and by opening e-mail attachments.


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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

Connecting to the internet without a firewall.

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"LC Tusken: the idiot is the person who follows the idiot and your not following me your insulting me your following the path of a idiot so that makes you the idiot"
NMGOH || Jack Chick preaches it || The Link of the Dead

Embedded Virus in Attactments, or software. Especially illegal software. Howeever some unpatched window machines leave vunerable ports wide open example the MS blaster virus. Viruses like that litterally spend their time sniffing IPs for vunverable Ports.

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---Thomas jefferson, Declaration of Independance.

1.) Disk swapping with an infected computer.
2.) E-mail attachments.
3.) Infected downloads.
4.) Infected software.
5.) Hackers who have your ISP (I think).

That's all I know of. I'm sure there's plenty more.

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"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17

The Giant Internet IC Masturbator - Index of IC pinouts
Catalog of Electronic Components - Complete IC data sheets
National Electrical Code (NEC) Online - Don't do wiring without consulting it. OR ELSE!

[This message has been edited by DogSRoOL (edited February 12, 2004).]

Write one and unleash it upon yourself.

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Do you have stairs in your house?

?

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Of war, we don't speak anymore

Well, for this post Im gonna use 'virus' as a loose term that will refer to all harmful code.

1) The old fashoned way; sneakernet. Your "friend" gives you a disk, and its infected with a boot-sector virus.

2) Downloading a virus-infected file from "Joe's downloads". If its not an official site, dont download it. Stay away from Downloads.com.

3) Using Outlook. This is really stupid. Theres a few dozen exploits in Outlook that allow an attacker to infect your system with an email.

4) Using p2p networks. A good 50% of the files on most p2p networks are infected with some sort of virus. Trader beware...

5) IM/IRC file tranfers. If you dont know the contact, dont accept the file.

6) OS exploits. Holes in your operating system can allow a virus to simply copy itself in and infect your box.

7) The occasional vuris-infected *offical* release. There have been occasions where releases of some program were infected with a trojan. Always wait a day or two before download the latest big thing, so that A, the community can run through the package and check for viruses, and B, mirrors can be set up.

There is of course more, but I think these should suffice.

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The future is here, and all bets are off.

Are you refering to a computer virus? Those are actually rather rare nowadays... There are three main types of "malicious programs" (I'm fairly sure there are only three types):

Worm: Possibly the most common. They spend most of their time searching address books, ports, whatever, and spam themselves from computer to computer. Most of them are programmed for a Denial-Of-Service (DOS) attack on a certain date. Most famous one: MyDoom (launched Dos on OCS and Microsoft).

Virus: The rarest. Compared to other codes, they spread slowly, and are usually targeted. They are programmed to cause permanent damage to their host, usually by deleting certain files. Most famous one: Michaelangelo (deleted critical files on the artists's birthday).

Trojan Horse: Quite possibly the most devastating. Almost always hidden in another file, they await until activation, then allow a connection between the sender and the host computer. Most famous ones: NetBus (allowed constant monitoring of host), and BackOrifice (allowed sender complete control over host)

If you happen to use a Windows NT operating system (the biggest target), you have an advantage: The task manager. Memorize/record what "proccesses" your computer has when it's "healthy". Then, if you suspect some worm/virus/trojan horse, check for any suspicious proccesses.

I hoped that helped somewhat; GBK covered all the real ways that malicious code can enter one's PC.

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.