The PC Doctor's Fix-it-Yourself Guide- P11: A technical director for a UK-based computer company who teaches such courses as Caring for Your PC has developed prescriptions for treating sick PCs. Arguing the benefits of fixing it yourself rather than relying on experts, his mission is to empower users with trouble- shooting and safe repair skills. | CHAPTER 4 Safe Computing 79 Don t feel that it s OK to live with joke programs on your system. Although they might not cause any harm or problems they might conflict with other programs or joke programs to cause system instabilities and crashes. PC DOCTOR S ORDER Resist the temptation to sendjoke programs and hoaxes to other people that way they are less likely to send them to you. Be serious about how you deal with security Medium-Risk Threats A medium-threat virus is one that isn t likely to do an awful lot of damage. Perhaps it looks for and deletes a certain file or application that can be easily recovered or reinstalled. A medium-threat virus may also try to send out copies of itself as an email attachment to others in your address book so that they too can suffer the unpleasant experience. Bear in mind that a medium-threat virus might target a file or program that you didn t have a backup for. To prevent a medium threat from becoming a high threat make sure you have a backup of important data and applications. High-Risk Threats A high-threat virus getting onto your system can cause you to have a very bad day or several bad days . High-threat viruses can do a whole host of nasty things Delete all the data stored on hard drives Alter files and documents on your PC such as replacing certain words in word processor files or spreadsheet files Capture your passwords and pass them on to others via the Internet Send your files to others word processor emails spreadsheet financial Use your email system to send junk email to others Disable or make alterations to the security systems on your computer or network to allow others to enter and possibly take control Hijack your browser so that you can only visit certain sites All these can be highly destructive. Even if you have an up-to-date backup of all your current files rectifying the problem can be a time-consuming job if it happens on one machine. If you have a network of systems the time and problems are multiplied.
