Computer Viruses and Trojans - What Are They and What Do They Do?

Computer Viruses and Trojans

A virus is known to many as an agent that causes different diseases. They have many modes of infecting all of the members of the animal kingdom. Although there are different types of viruses, they have one commonality; they are all harmful. Nowadays, the term virus has taken a different turn when it comes to the meaning. Now, it is more commonly associated with anything that brings a computer to its demise or to something close to that.

Computer virus has to be the most popular phrase when the thought of internet comes to the minds of most people. The reason is that they remember the destruction it brings. Computers have changed the way all people live. It has become important in all aspects of living may it be politics, religion or business. Just when we thought it could not get better, the Internet came along. Among all of the benefits of the internet, the one that people are most happy about is how it made communication much easier. In the old days, the only connection you have to your loved ones in other countries is through mail or telephone. Now, there are more efficient and faster ways of communicating. You can send an e-mail or a private message which will only take a few seconds and your message will be received immediately.

This advancement took a tragic turn when someone smart enough decided to make a computer virus. A computer virus, sticking to the true meaning of the word virus, is something that infects a computer, jams its programs and causes many problems to the user. It can bring any time of destruction from a small computer glitch to making your whole computer system crash.

Sadly, there are many ways that a virus is transferred from one computer to another. Storage devices such as USB can be a medium to transfer a virus. If two or more computers are connected via a network connection, a virus can be transferred. The most devastating news is that not only can it be transferred offline; it can be transferred online too. The internet became the most notorious aspect of the computer when it comes to getting it infected.

This is why the whole world, or the people who uses computers, rejoiced at the birth of antiviruses. These are the programs that are designed to track down and get rid of computer viruses from its system. Now, there are many ways on how to protect your computer using antiviruses. Although there are many antivirus programs out in the market today, they have one common factor: they prioritize prevention. They gave importance of detecting a virus that is threatening to invade a computer so that they can block it before it can cause any harm. Now, antiviruses are also wise enough to detect viruses that are already in the computer before they were installed and delete or clean it.

Aside from antiviruses, the users can also follow guidelines to prevent their computer from getting infected such as don't access sites that are about pornography since most viruses are found here.

Author : Amy Brooks