Anti Virus, Anti Spyware

How To Prevent Virus Attack On Your ComputerBy James Wallis
The threat of viruses cannot be underestimated by anyindividual or business. They can strike anywhere, anytime whenyou are least expecting them and throw a spanner in your works.
What are Computer Viruses?
Computer viruses are actually small software programmes writtenwith malicious intent. They are tailor-made to spreadautomatically from one computer to another through a variety ofmeans. Once they reach a computer, they immediately create manyversions of themselves and infect a lot of files.
Viruses are written by people who are either software engineersor know programming languages. Often, these are young teenagersstill studying computer science in colleges who are just doingit for fun or trying to impress their friends with theirintellect and competence.
How do Viruses Spread?
Not very long ago, floppy disk was the only way we couldtransfer data files from one computer to another. Therefore,this was the only media available to viruses for travelling incyber-space. Now, digital media used for transferring files hasmultiplied. Apart from floppy disks – which are now almostobsolete – there are optical disks (including compact disks anddigital video disks) as well as USB Flash drives used fortransferring data. Apart from these, emails are the maincarriers of digital files today over long distances.
In the modern world, the Internet has been a great boon. It isan international network made up of old-fashioned copper wires,fibre-optic cables as well as micro-wave and satellite linksthat connects almost all computers of the world. We can use itto browse millions of Websites, download useful information aswell as send emails and pictures to friends, relatives andbusiness contacts far and wide.
Internet has also emerged as the ideal vehicle that viruses useto spread themselves worldwide in a matter of days. Indeed,today most viruses are introduced to your computer through theInternet. Emails are the main culprit. What happens is that avirus residing in your computer automatically accesses youremail address book, attaches itself to emails and starts sendingthem to everyone in your email database without your getting toknow about it.
When the recipients see your email, they click on it and theircomputer becomes infected with the virus too. The latter thenplays out the same game with the new computer and sends itselfto every address in its email list. This is like a chainreaction whose shock-wave encompasses millions of computers.
Apart from email, viruses can enter your computer when youbrowse websites. The latter may have some hidden viruses andother troublesome software such as spyware. When you click on alink, a virus may get activated and download itself onto yourcomputer hard disk.
Trojans are a version of computer viruses. Like the proverbialTrojan horse, these hide themselves inside harmless-lookingfiles such as digital pictures, greeting cards, video clips andaudio files. When you download any of these onto your computer,the hidden virus comes alive and starts infecting your harddisk.
Viruses can damage your computer in different ways. Some ofthese are just nuisance-creators, like, for example, a virusforcing you to press a particular keyboard button every fiveminutes if you want to continue working. But many are deadly intheir effect and try to wipe your hard disk clean of all data.
Anti-Virus Vaccine
Every year, viruses are responsible for massive damage in termsof lost data and the money spent by individuals and businessesin trying to recover that data. Companies suffer immensefinancial setbacks if they are unable to recover their criticalfiles. That is why most countries in the world have laws thatmandate strict punishments for anyone found responsible forcreating computer viruses and injecting them into cyber-space.
In the last few decades, an entire new industry has cropped upthat specialises in anti-virus software products. Called virusvaccines, these are meant to be loaded onto your hard disk.Whenever you boot up your computer, this software gets activatedand keeps an eye on your files. It does not allow you todownload any file or open any website link before it has firstvetted it to see if it is not hiding a dangerous virus. Thismakes your computer quite safe.
Also, the anti-virus software periodically scans your entirehard drive to check for viruses. Newer viruses are gettingcreated every day. Therefore, the anti-virus software keepsdownloading newer virus definitions from its company website sothat your computer protection remains up to date.
About the Author: James Walsh is a writer and copy editor. Ifyou are concerned about data loss and would like moreinformation on Data Recovery seehttp://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk/
Source: http://www.isnare.com/
Permanent Link:http://www.isnare.com/?aid=195290&ca=Computers+and+Technology