Focus On: Viruses

On March 10, 2006 McAfee AntiVirus users were dismayed to find essential files had been tagged as the Win95/CTX virus, then quarantined or deleted. With no clue as to what was taking place, many kept re-scanning in hopes that McAfee could eventually remove the evil virus and repair their broken computers. Unfortunately, the "malware" attacking their systems was McAfee itself, consulting it's own misbegotten virus definition file: 4715.DAT. McAfee users are understandably upset.

Microsoft's current offerings for anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-hacker services is such an overlapping jumble, it has some of its own developers confused. What distinguishes Windows Defender, Windows Live Safety Center, Malicious Software Removal Tool, Windows OneCare Live, and Microsoft Client Protection from each other? Which tools work together? Which don't? Email Battles sorts it all out... hopefully.

Nearly every rootkit guru tells you once your operating system's been altered by a rootkit, you can never return the existing system to its pre-rootkit state. The only solution offered: re-format the hard drive. While that's an easy fix for a technician, it returns the end-user's life to the Stone Age. Email Battles steps you over the gotchas in rootkit recovery through hard disk replacement, a method that can actually leave you in better shape than before.

Now that the Kama Sutra scare has passed, it's time for a bit of finger pointing. A review of major media reports leading up to 3 February revealed that, while the sexy story was splashed all over the news, very few anti-virus vendors were fanning the flames. Email Battles tells you who said what and when.

February 3 is Porn Day. You can easily limit any damage caused by the porn virus formally known as CME-24, by disconnecting the ethernet ports of each network computer before startup. If you don't, and just one computer is infected, you're going to have one rotten day. Read on to see just how bad your life will be after the virus also known as Blackmal.F, Grew.A, Kama Sutra, Kapser.A, MyWife.d, MyWife.E, Nyxem-D, Nyxem.e, Nyxem.F, Small.KI, Tearec.A, VB.bi, VB.NEI, VB-CD, VB.CIL, VB-8 and KillAV.GR gets loose.