Never Ending Handkerchief of Viruses
Just something I thought I would share. Lets say you have a computer, and it’s got viruses on, but no anti virus software. You install some anti virus software, and begin to remove viruses. However, no matter how hard you try, so long as an internet connection exists (even if you only reconnect after you believe the viruses are gone), there are more viruses. So, how do you describe this to a complete beginner, that figured installing 5 or 6 anti virus and adware/spyware programs would keep them safe? I came up with the following analogy:
Lets say a criminal broke into your house, while the front door guards were all fighting over who’s shift it is. No matter what you do, you can not get the criminal out of your house, but you have managed to corner the criminal into a room, where you have locked all the doors. However, the window is open.
Some viruses got on your computer, while you had no anti virus protection (because all the programs were fighting for system domination), you sorted this out and got a single anti virus program working. It found out about the viruses, and now all day long, 24/7 you keep getting messages about viruses that have been caught.
So you keep the criminal locked in the room. However, so long as there is oxygen in the room the criminal will stay alive.
So long as you keep connecting to the internet again, the viruses will just keep coming.
So how do you solve this? There are plenty of ways. My favourite involves formatting the system entirely. My second favourite involves putting the HDD in another computer. Thing is, I only wanted to share my analogy, which anyone can use to explain to complete beginners, what happened on their computer, as a result of not having any anti virus software installed.
Got a solution that you are busting to tell the world about? Post it here… in the comments! If I get a lot of replies, I’ll put your ideas in their own little section!
Never Ending Handkerchief of Viruses? Think of the criminal trapped in the room as a clown or a magician. So long as he is alive, he can keep on tormenting you from inside the room, pulling a never ending handkerchief (a connection to the internet) of viruses from his pocket.
May 7th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
[...] have been fun, i actually tried compiling some virii source codes…ssshhh, i didn’t say that!) … Never Ending Handkerchief of Viruses http://eastonroyce.roycesoftware.com/never-ending-handkerchief-of-viruses Just something I thought [...]