Viruses and Hoaxes

A virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves (have baby viruses). All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks (via e-mail) and bypassing security systems.

Some people can not distinguish  general viruses and hoaxes. A hoax is an e-mail attempting to get you to delete something that is important or needed in your system.

The Public Schools of Petoskey have virus scanners running at the server level.  Any e-mail you send and receive will automatically be scanned and cleaned of any viruses.  Unfortunately, we can not clean hoaxes out of the e-mails and we are always getting people asking about them.

If for some reason you ever get an e-mail from someone and it sounds like it could be a virus, contact the person who sent it, asking if they truly did send it.  A lot of viruses are sent without the knowledge of the person sending them.

Click on the Teddy Bear to see the common hoax sent around the internet today:

We have had a lot of staff ask about virus protection from home.  There are several makers of virus protection available for under $50.00.  Symantec/Norton, McAfee, and Panda.  A free online scan for viruses can be done at housecall (just click on the scan withour registering).  It will take a minute or more depending on your connection to download some needed files. 

If you purchase a antivirus software, make sure that your definitions are up to date.  Definitions are what allows the virus software to determine if you have a virus or not.  If you don't update your definitions, you will not be protected against the latest and greatest of the viruses.  Typically there is an auto-update feature, but your software may vary.