3. What is a computer virus? Computer virus are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interface with computer operation. A virus might corrupt or delete data on your computer ,use your e-mail program to spread itself to other computers ,or even erase everything on your hard disk Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in e-mail messages or instant messaging messages. That is why is essential that you never open e-mail attachments unless you know who it’s from and you are expecting it. Virus can be disguised as attachments of funny Images , greeting cards , or audio and video files
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5. To help avoid computer viruses , it’s essential that you keep your computer current with the latest updates and antivirus tools, stay informed about recent threats , run your computer as a standard user and that you follow a few basic rules when you surf the Internet, downloads files , and open attachments .
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7. Types of virus There are different types of computer virus could be classified . Let us have at look at them A virus should never be assumed harmless and left on the system . Most common type of virus are mentioned below.
8. Overwrite viruses Virus of this kind is characterized by fact that it deletes the information contained in the files that it infects , rendering them partially or totally useless once they have been infected The only way to clean a file infected by an overwrite virus is to delete the file completely ,thus losing the original content Example : way trivial.88.d
9. Boot Viruses This type of viruses affects the boot sector of a floppy or hard disk. This is a crucial part of a disk , in which information on the disk itself is stored together with a program that makes it possible to boot (start) the computer from the disk. The best way of avoiding boot viruses is to ensure that floppy disks are write-protected and never start your computer with an unknown floppy disk in the disk drive. Examples : AntiEXE , Polyboot.b.
10. Worms virus A worm is a program very similar to a virus ; it has the ability to self-replicate , and can lead to negative effects on your system and most importantly they are detected and eliminating by antivirus. Examples: Mapson etc.,
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12. A virus, once installed on your computer, can easily corrupt or delete data from your computer. we have heard countless times from people, " But I did not open any email attachments, how can I be infected?" While it is true that a majority of viruses are hidden within email attachments, they can also be downloaded into our computers in the form of images, videos, or even instant messages Do not open email attachments if you do not know the sender, this is asking for trouble. Lets move on to identifying infected computers., it is our responsibility to quickly identify the signs of virus infections. Computers with virus infections will often show some of the following symptoms. Please note, that the issues listed below may be caused by several problems, such as spyware, and are not specific to viruses. Your computer may be slow to start or shut down. You may be missing data on your hard drive or, in worst case scenarios, lose all data on the drive. You may experience strange error messages or you computer will shut down unexpectedly. Your fonts may be distorted and overlap or you may experience difficulties in printing. If you do not have an anti virus program, first thing to do is get one! In the meantime you may use the services of an online virus removal tool. Many of the popular anti virus programs offer this service.
