Computer viruses

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What is A Virus?

The term “virus” is often loosely used in reference to any type of malicious program, or it is used to describe any negative event that a malicious program causes to a host system.

Computer viruses

What is a computer virus and what are the implications for your computer if it gets ‘infected’? How is a virus transferred from one computer to another and how does one avoid and/ or get rid of a virus? We will answer these questions and more in the next few paragraphs.

Malware is an umbrella term for programming or files that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, hijackers, and certain type of adware.

Let’s focus on computer viruses for now. A computer virus is essentially a computer program that, by its very nature, is designed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk, infecting the computer with out the knowledge or permission of the user. It requires that its host be taken to an uninfected computer. Computer viruses are sometimes confused with worms or Trojan horses. A worm can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a file that appears harmless, but can cause great damage. There are those viruses that are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. Though this type may not cause damage they take up computer memory that is required for legitimate programs thereby causing the computer to behave erratically and perhaps leading to the computer crashing.

In this age of technological advancement most computers are either connected to a local area network or the internet or both which thus makes them susceptible to the spread of damaging computer code. The internet, emails, instant messaging and even file sharing all pose a potential threat to your computer. USB drives, CDs and other removable media are also potential sources of infection. It is always a good idea to ensure that the shared information is from a reliable source – be it a file shared on a local area network or as an attachment in an email.

Your first line of defense against the onslaught of the computer virus is an effective and up-to-date anti-virus software program (such as McAfee or Symantec Norton) that can detect and eliminate viruses. Precisely how these programs work is by sheer volume of information the basis of a completely separate article. Suffice it to say that this is just one method of avoiding a virus. An effective method to prevent damage being done to your computer in the event of it becoming infected is to make regular backups of files and the Operating System that you use on media that is kept apart from your computer such as on CD, DVD or other such media.

Presuming you computer is infected, how do you go about removing the virus/ viruses? This can be a complex task even for an expert. But in layman’s terms here are a few tips: Step 1 will be to install an antivirus program, Step 2 will be to scan the system and locate the virus, Step 3 will be to allow the software to destroy the offending, trouble-causing annoyance.

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