Computer Viruses (Be prepared for your computers’ sake)

Unfortunately, viruses are as much a part of computer technology as super large hard drives or super fast processors. The proof of this is in the growing section of the technology field that’s solitary focus is to keep your computer free of computer viruses. As usual, there are some things that we can do to for ourselves to help us avoid the headaches of a malicious computer virus.
The first thing that we can do is demystify computer viruses by understanding what they are and what they do. Computer viruses are essentially instructions that are placed in a program or software code to carry out a specific task. Also, viruses are coded to carry out malicious functions on your computer. Those malicious functions can vary from formatting your hard drive to placing inane objects on your computer. Some viruses are time delayed or only affect certain programs on your system.
The term computer virus generally encompasses four equally common sub-categories. The first is “The Trojan Horse”. Much like its historical equine namesake this subversive device can wreck havoc on your system if not caught. Trojan Horse is actually a program that is downloaded from the net or on a disk. It is purposely labeled as a game or the like so that you will run the program on your system. Email Viruses are the most popular type of viruses. They spread by opening attachments to received emails. Once opened they usually do whatever they were programmed to do then send themselves to the addresses in your email account. The next category is Worms. Worms look for weaknesses in a computers network security to spread. The last category is simply called Viruses, and is an amalgamation of all the other malicious code that must piggyback in on legitimate programs. They run when the legitimate program run and they look for opportunities to spread themselves by attaching to other programs.
The cure to computer viruses is simple. I would first suggest buying the latest anti-virus software. I used to think that it was just a scam to make money by putting new software on the market annually. It turns out that anti-virus software really does age quickly. This is due to the fact that new viruses are constantly emerging. Other steps that you can take are to avoid downloading from non-commercial Internet sites. You can also disable the floppy disk booting, if you know how.
There is one more thing that is definitely worth mentioning. From time to time emails are circulated that claim that there may be a virus on your computer that you are unaware of. You may then be instructed to delete this file or program from your system. It has been my experience that most of these emails are hoaxes. You should always check out a suspected virus before removing anything from your system. A good place to verify an email virus warning is at symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html.