If you have been on the internet, or even just watched the news, you have definitely found out about the evils of internet viruses and the destruction that they cause. You may have even experienced this destruction personally. Computers are literally overwhelmed with the infection of a virus and cease working in the worst case, or work much slower and less dependably. You also most likely know that there is an answer to this developing problem and that's antivirus software. What you may not know is specifically what the virus is doing to your computer and how the antivirus tools can repair and/or prevent this destructive work.
First, viruses are by definition self replicating computer programs which use a host to spread to other computers. This is done usually by inserting itself in an executable code of certain programs which can then propagate this code to other computers. It is essential to note that viruses are just one subset of malicious software or malware and that antivirus software isn't always protective from all of the different forms. People frequently get one of these anti virus tools and feel as though they are then immune when in reality they stay very vulnerable to a host of other kinds of destructive software. Other kinds include worms and Trojan horses and have other properties which need specific safeguards. Important to know about but not within the scope of this article to cover all the different forms.
And so let us talk about viruses particularly because they're the oldest form of maleware. Viruses are thought to have started sometime in the early 1980s. At this time the internet and other large networks which are so popular today were not the way that viruses spread. Actually in the beginning, computer viruses were mainly spread by way of removable media, mainly floppy disks. There are many reasons for these viruses to be written including mere destructive tendencies, as research, as particular attacks on particular computers, as pirates of information, as well as as art forms which computer programmers do in their spare time.
They can do all sorts of damage. The most common of which is self replication to the point of overwhelming the computer's memory resources causing it to either run haltingly, slowly, or not by any means. The can jamb up networks and shut them down much like a power outage. It's important to be aware however that the damage is limited to the software on a computer and thus if you haven't gotten antivirus software and have become infected, you might have lost a hard drive's worth of valuable information but at the least you haven't lost the whole computer.
First, viruses are by definition self replicating computer programs which use a host to spread to other computers. This is done usually by inserting itself in an executable code of certain programs which can then propagate this code to other computers. It is essential to note that viruses are just one subset of malicious software or malware and that antivirus software isn't always protective from all of the different forms. People frequently get one of these anti virus tools and feel as though they are then immune when in reality they stay very vulnerable to a host of other kinds of destructive software. Other kinds include worms and Trojan horses and have other properties which need specific safeguards. Important to know about but not within the scope of this article to cover all the different forms.
And so let us talk about viruses particularly because they're the oldest form of maleware. Viruses are thought to have started sometime in the early 1980s. At this time the internet and other large networks which are so popular today were not the way that viruses spread. Actually in the beginning, computer viruses were mainly spread by way of removable media, mainly floppy disks. There are many reasons for these viruses to be written including mere destructive tendencies, as research, as particular attacks on particular computers, as pirates of information, as well as as art forms which computer programmers do in their spare time.
They can do all sorts of damage. The most common of which is self replication to the point of overwhelming the computer's memory resources causing it to either run haltingly, slowly, or not by any means. The can jamb up networks and shut them down much like a power outage. It's important to be aware however that the damage is limited to the software on a computer and thus if you haven't gotten antivirus software and have become infected, you might have lost a hard drive's worth of valuable information but at the least you haven't lost the whole computer.
About the Author:
If you want more information on antivirus reviews, don't read just rehashed articles online to avoid getting ripped off. Go here: Antivirus Comparison
0 comments:
Post a Comment