A few days ago, I went to a copy-shop to print some files I had. They had computers with MS Windows XP, where you could put your USB-Stick in and print your files. And so I did.
When I came home, I found a rather unpleasant surprise inside the memstick. A folder called "Autostart" with a .exe file inside had appeared, along with an "autostart.ini"-file on the root of the memstick. Furthermore, there was a newly created "recycler" directory with two subfolders, each with an executable file inside.
Of course, when I ran a virus-scan on the three files three DIFFERENT Win32 viruses were found (with the infamous "Conficker" among them).
Viruses are a well-know issue today. There are very good free anti-virus programs out there. Is it really so hard to take 10 minutes and install one?
Another feature that should be installed on public computers is a backup system. By createing an image of the system and loading it every morning, you can easily avoid the spreading of viruses. There are even PCI-Cards that do this for you.
By the way, in case you find a suspicious file on your system, there is a very good online virus-scanner called Jotty (http://virusscan.jotti.org/) you can use to check if a certain file is infected. It uses several virus-scanners simultaneously, and prints the output of every one of them, which is great to avoid false results.
Furthermore, if you think your system might be infected, you can create a bootable Linux image (such as Slax), load some free anti-virus programs into it (of course, their Linux versions), put it on a memory stick or a CD, boot your system with it and scan your system's partition. By doing this you can prevent the viruses from running and eventually hiding from your anti-virus.
When I came home, I found a rather unpleasant surprise inside the memstick. A folder called "Autostart" with a .exe file inside had appeared, along with an "autostart.ini"-file on the root of the memstick. Furthermore, there was a newly created "recycler" directory with two subfolders, each with an executable file inside.
Of course, when I ran a virus-scan on the three files three DIFFERENT Win32 viruses were found (with the infamous "Conficker" among them).
Viruses are a well-know issue today. There are very good free anti-virus programs out there. Is it really so hard to take 10 minutes and install one?
Another feature that should be installed on public computers is a backup system. By createing an image of the system and loading it every morning, you can easily avoid the spreading of viruses. There are even PCI-Cards that do this for you.
By the way, in case you find a suspicious file on your system, there is a very good online virus-scanner called Jotty (http://virusscan.jotti.org/) you can use to check if a certain file is infected. It uses several virus-scanners simultaneously, and prints the output of every one of them, which is great to avoid false results.
Furthermore, if you think your system might be infected, you can create a bootable Linux image (such as Slax), load some free anti-virus programs into it (of course, their Linux versions), put it on a memory stick or a CD, boot your system with it and scan your system's partition. By doing this you can prevent the viruses from running and eventually hiding from your anti-virus.
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