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!DO NOT OPEN 'LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL' POWERPOINT - IT IS A HIGHLY DANGEROUS VIRUS!
There is a powerpoint based email virus going around at the moment. It is highly dangerous. Its name is 'Life Is Beautiful'.
What Happens:
1. you download the powerpoint to your computer
2. the powerpoint starts and says 'your life is no longer beautiful'
3. your computer/ laptop goes blank
4. all of your files are instantly wiped from your computer - YOU CANNOT RESTORE THE ITEMS!
5. the person who sent the virus gets your personal details registered to that computer/ laptop.
CAUTION! THIS VIRUS SHOULD BE INSTANTLY DELETED IF IN YOUR INBOX!
Types of virus
From worms to macros, there's a whole host of viruses out there to catch...
Worms
These viruses spread via computer networks. The ILOVEYOU virus above was a classic example of a worm. These viruses are becoming an increasing threat as a growing number of computers are permanently connected to networks. Worms can spread over corporate networks or via emails sent over the Internet.
Trojans
A Trojan virus takes its name from a story in Homer's Iliad where Greek soldiers pretended to make peace with their enemies, the Trojans. The Greeks made a grand peace-keeping gesture - the gift of a large wooden horse.
When the Trojans hauled it inside their city gates, a small band of Greek warriors leapt out. They opened the gates and let the rest of the Greek army storm in to capture the city.
A Trojan virus is one that opens your computer up to malicious intruders, allowing them to read your files.
File viruses
A file virus is one that replaces a key system file on your computer. These viruses can reload themselves every time you start your computer up. Once they're in the memory, they can spread by writing themselves to any disk you insert into your disk drive.
Boot sector viruses
This is an early type of computer virus that spreads by hiding itself in an invisible location on your hard drive or floppy disk. When your computer reads an infected floppy disk, the virus is copied from the disk to your computer's memory.
From there, it writes itself to the 'boot sector' on your hard drive. The boot sector is read each time you turn your computer on. So the virus is constantly reloaded and can copy itself on to other floppy disks. These viruses are fairly rare nowadays, as they are easy to catch.
Macroviruses
A macrovirus infects word processor files, such as Microsoft Word documents. Although not as dangerous as other viruses, they can spread quickly if a Word file is sent via email. After an initial scare, Microsoft added protection into later versions of Word, so you receive a warning about infected documents.
Hoaxes
The virus hoax came about after friends sent each other emails about a new virus threat. Someone decided that they could cause just as much trouble by sending out fake warnings rather than real viruses.
Hoaxes may seem harmless, but they do a great deal of damage to the Internet as a whole. Not only do they slow down traffic and clog up email servers, but they also cause people to panic. Companies can spend money and time investigating what is just someone's idea of a joke.
Mobile phone viruses
Although rare, mobile phones are the latest technology to be hit by virus problems. Some people have discovered that it is possible to crash certain types of mobile by sending them a coded text message.
Mobile phone viruses
A recent case in Spain started via email. When the user opens the attachment on their PC, the virus generates a "junk" text message (using a Spanish telecommunications company website) which is sent out to a random phone number. Anti-virus software companies say that the virus will not infect the mobile phone itself.
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