What is a Computer Virus?

What is a Computer Virus?

When using or browsing the internet, you gain more chance to have computer viruses. They are small programs that are formed to extend from a computer to another and to intrude with computer operation. It is capable of corrupting or deleting your data or use your email account to proliferate itself to other PCs or worst is, it can even erase your whole hard drive. It often comes as an attachment in your emails or instant messaging accounts. So it is important that you don't just open your email attachments unless the mail comes from one of your contacts.

Viruses can also hide as attachments of images, greeting cards or any other multimedia files. You can also gain it when downloading anything from the internet. They can hide as an illegal software or other programs that you download. It comes with the following infections:

1. Viruses – A small software that acts like a real program. It can attach itself to any program. Like when it is attached to your document file and each time you run the file, the virus will run too.

2. Email Viruses – This is an attachment to email messages and it commonly imitates itself by sending it automatically to dozens of people in your address book.

3. Trojan Horses – This is just a computer program that claims to be just an ordinary one. But it can damage your computer when you run it. This can be imitate automatically.

4. Worms – A small software that utilizes computer networks and security hole to imitates itself.

These days, we also have spyware and malware. The spyware is a malicious software that proliferates through the internet. Spyware is used to identify a software that do some behaviors and without getting your permission such as advertising, collecting personal information and altering your computer's configuration. Malware on the other hand is a malicious software that is being used or created by intruders to interrupt computer operation, collect sensitive information or get access to most private PCs.

But you need not to worry on browsing or surfing the internet, you just need to be very careful on which site you will open. Always go to trusted websites. If a website is offering you things that are too good to be true, then don't go for it. Do not click on the emails that is sent from an email that you hardly know. Some secure site has a padlock on the bottom of their page, if you find one then it is safe to go there. Intruders are very hard to pinpoint and also the fraudulent sites so you need to be very careful on entering your account information such as email address, credit card numbers and more.

You can also use antivirus software such as AVG Free Antivirus, Free Norton Antivirus, Avira Free Antivirus 2013, Avast 2013 Free Antivirus and more.