True story

By protecting your computer, you are also protecting other computers.

Country: Canada

Year: 2008

Background: The Sureté du Québec (Quebec police) broke up an extensive hacking network that used zombies installed on victims’ computers to enable hackers to control them remotely.

Consequences: These computers were subsequently used to attack websites in order to steal computer data and identities. More than 100 countries were affected by the fraudulent activities of 17 individuals between the ages of 17 and 26. In total, several hundred thousand computers were breached, causing more than $45 million in damage.

Read the article (in French only)

Listen to the radio interview (in French only)

Computer viruses

A virus is a small malicious computer program that attaches itself to a program or file. Then, it can contaminate the whole system, duplicate and spreads from one computer to another.

A virus can spread to an organization's network or a computer by email, local network, diskettes, CD-ROMs, the Internet, messaging, USB keys, MP3 players, etc.

The virus is activated when the infected program or file is launched.

Caution

A virus may:

  • Damage or destroy your programs or files
  • Damage or completely disable your computer

How can you protect yourself?

  • Use antivirus software
  • Make sure you regularly update your antivirus software, operating system and email software
  • Do not open emails that contain attachments from unknown or questionable sources
  • Disable your email's automatic opening feature
  • Do not download files from questionable sources or illegal websites
  • Have your antivirus software scan diskettes, CD-ROMs, USB keys , MP3 players and external drives before transferring files
  • Make a backup copy of your work files and system configuration

References

 

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