Imagine your horror at having all your years of computerized family history research destroyed in just a few moments by a computer virus. If you consider the time, energy and love that has gone into your research, I can't think of anything that would make you more heartsick than losing all of that effort in one fell swoop. Therefore, in "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, let's talk about computer viruses, what they are, where they come from and how to prevent them.

What is a Virus?
A computer virus is generally defined as a program, which replicates and transmits itself from one computer to another. Viruses are created by people with a variety of motives, from the novice programmer who wants to prove his/her mettle to the outright cyber-terrorist wishing to wreak malicious destruction on computer users and their equipment. Some viruses act as soon as they are introduced into your computer, while others lurk until a specified date and time before activating themselves. Some viruses are benign, more of an annoyance than anything else. Others, however, may do irreparable damage by corrupting programs or deleting files. In a worst case scenario, a virus may reformat your hard disk, destroying all of your programs and data, and then go beyond that, altering the essential system code on the BIOS chip on your computer's motherboard. In that case, there is little hope for your computer other than to replace the motherboard and/or BIOS chip and then reinstall every program again. And hopefully you backed up your essential data. Otherwise you will have lost all your valuable data -- including all your computerized genealogical research materials -- forever!

How Are Viruses Transmitted?
What you must first understand is that computer viruses are executable programs, and their file name extensions are most often .exe (for executable program). Others are .com (command files) and, occasionally, .ovl (overlay files). Understand, too, that they are NOT text files -- those with a file extension of .txt in their name. They also are not graphics files such as those with file extensions of .gif, .jpg, .bmp, .tif, or .tiff, and a variety of other graphics format files.

Computer viruses can be transmitted between computers in several ways, all of which allow the executable files to be introduced and to run on your computer. There are literally thousands of viruses floating around in cyberspace, all acting a little differently. I could never describe all the scenarios, but let's look at just a few:

1. A friend, colleague, or fellow researcher may provide you with a disk with documents or files on it. You may place this in your computer's floppy drive (A:) and copy the files to your hard disk. If there was a boot sector virus on the disk, one that affects your system's start-up files, you just introduced it to your computer. The next time you try to start your computer, you're dead.

2. Perhaps you didn't copy the files. Instead, perhaps you opened a GEDCOM file from your A: drive. There isn't a problem -- yet. However, you turn off your computer, leaving the disk in the floppy drive. If there's a boot sector virus there, the next time you turn on your computer, it tries to start itself with system files on the floppy disk in the A: drive. It then reads the virus and introduces it to the computer.

3. You have been exchanging E-mail with someone about your surname and they agree to share their GEDCOM file. When you receive the E-mail with the file attached., you notice the file is named JONES.EXE. You download the file to your hard disk and open it. Surprise! There's a file-infecting virus inside, and it may start working immediately to alter or destroy files on your computer.

4. Another person sends you a file that they tell you is compressed in a .ZIP format. ZIP files can consist of one or more files that have been compressed to eliminate spaces and therefore improve storage and transfer time. You download the file, but unfortunately this JOHNSON.ZIP file also contains a self-extracting facility that immediately starts the virus (that was also included in the little package) and devastation is on its way.

5. Another researcher sends you a Microsoft Word document as an attachment to an e-mail. At first glance, it looks great. The file is named WILSON.DOC and you download and store it on your hard disk. When you go to open it, a box is displayed asking you whether you want to Enable Macros or Open Without Enabling Macros. You select 'Enable Macros' and someone has just hit you with a virus, one that uses an advanced feature of MS-Word to run a set of program instructions that can wreak havoc on your computer.

All of these are pretty scary. Not only can these scenarios happen, some viruses combine multiple techniques and attack in multiple ways. Some even hide in your computer's memory (RAM) or alter themselves in size and rename themselves to avoid detection.

How Will My Computer Stay Virus-Free?
While there are many ways to catch a virus, there are a number of ways and places you will not contract a computer virus.

1. Prepackaged software sold in retail stores or from reputable locations on the Internet will not have viruses. If you go to a store and consider purchasing prepackaged software that has been opened and is on sale for a bargain price, think again. The person who returned the merchandise may have infected the software, on purpose or unintentionally.

2. Software and data files that you find at reliable genealogy sites such as Ancestry.com, the Genealogy Forum on America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy, and some other sites are rigidly checked for viruses. You can download these files with confidence that they have been screened and that any viruses have been eradicated.

3. Files attached to e-mail that are text type files, bearing file names with the extension of .txt, are not executable programs and are therefore not viruses.

How to Protect Yourself
The most effective way to protect yourself against viruses is to know your source. Be careful about accepting disks and files from strangers, and be wary about where on the Internet you download files.

Second, purchase and use a reputable anti-virus software program and check every single file you introduce to your computer, regardless of its location. The major software packages on the market are McAfee's VirusScan (http://www.mcafee.com/), Dr. Solomon's Anti-Viral Tool Kit (http://www.drsolomon.com/), and Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus (http://www.symantec.com/). A good anti-virus software package will detect different types of viruses, alert you to their presence, delete them and/or try to clean infected files.

Make sure you obtain frequent updates/upgrades from these companies' Web sites or periodically purchase new versions of their software. With hundreds of new viruses discovered annually, you cannot afford to be lackadaisical on this subject.

Third, make an emergency boot disk. In the event that a virus infects your system, you will be able to bypass the infected or damaged system files and restart your computer. See your computer manual or Windows 95/98 Help files for instructions. It's easy!

Last but not least, back up all your important data on a regular basis. If a virus destroyed your genealogical research information stored on your computer, you would probably never be able to recreate it all. Invest a few minutes regularly to back up your data and you might save yourself many months of reconstruction and reentry of data.

Be Prepared!
Now that you understand what a virus is and what one can do to your computer, make certain you are prepared against this insidious form of cyber-terrorism. Invest the time to learn more about viruses, purchase and use anti-virus software, know your sources, be vigilant in your virus-checking routine, and regularly back up your data. This is another important way to preserve your family history.

Happy Hunting!

George

Copyright 2000, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved. George G. Morgan is a proud member of the Council of Genealogy Columnists. He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com but, due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every e-mail message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web site at: http://ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking engagements. George is also the author of "The Genealogy Forum on America Online," which is available in the Ancestry Online Store at: http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog/
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