Computer Viruses : History And How They Work

Pc viruses have been around since the nineteen eighties, are designed to have devastating effects on a computers system and have been given the term "virus" because of their similar resemblances to a biological virus which infects different parts of the human body and tries to spread as much as it can. The amount of infections on the internet has risen greatly and although there are many virus removal tools ready for pc users to download it is still important to understand what it is that these malicious files do and how you can avoid having one infect your system. There is spyware, adware, trojan horses, malware, parasite ware and page hijackers and the differences between these types are quite considerable and this is why we should discuss them individually.

What Is A Worm?

Worms are very dangerous infections which usually find their way into networks or operating systems by exploiting various " security holes " in windows or everyday programs that you make use of. It is not like a virus in that it does not necessarily have to attach onto a software program but has the ability to make several copies of itself , move from computer to computer via emails or disks and is commonly notorious for using up large amounts of internet bandwidth. It can modify and delete files on your hard disks and can also slow your pc down a great deal when they are at work infecting your system files. A worm gets its way into other operating systems and pc's via networks in which it can spread one version throughout very rapidly as was the case with the code red worm that was reported to have actually replicated itself more than two hundred and fifty thousand times within the time frame of eight hours. The effects of this infection were far worse than expected in which it reduced the speed of internet traffic significantly and copied itself to every unsecured windows 2000 and NT server on the internet that did not have a security patch on them. Worms are not created to modify or change settings within the systems they go through but are instead programmed to disrupt networks.

Protection Measures

1. Do no attempt to load an email attachment which contains executable files whether it be in document, picture or application format as they are designed to instantly infect your computer.

2. Sometimes people are tempted to download free software programs with the hope of avoiding expenses but what most are not aware of is that they are infected with viruses. Always make sure you stay away from unknown applications and pay for software from reliable sources as this will greatly reduce the risk of an infection.

3. Using virus removal software like Xoftspyse is recommended in order to keep your system safe. You should also make sure that the program you use has the latest virus signature updates to be able to keep up with the newest infections.

4. If you are ever shown a pop up which indicates that it will scan your computer do not click anywhere except for the top right hand corner where the cross is to close the box. This catches many people off guard in that a large portion of internet users will click on these adverts which will actually cause an infection to install itself on windows without you even knowing.

5. Security levels are absolutely essential and should be at the defaults to avoid further problems. If you check the privacy levels in internet explorer always make sure it is set at medium as if it is on low then that is a sign of an infection which has manipulated your settings.

6. Stay away from p2p networks and warez websites as most of the files you get are shared and have been tampered with.

When Do I Know I Have A Virus?

Determining whether you do in fact have a computer virus on your system can be hard as it does not always make its effects so visible and apparent. Here are just some of the behaviors you should be on the lookout for in order to help you answer this question.

- Very slow windows startups in which you will sometimes see only your desktop background and no items will be displayed on the desktop.

- You might encounter the continuous displays of command windows which might appear to execute different codes which will indicate an infection.

- If you computer runs slow please check task manager and look to see if there are any unknown files using up excessive amount of system memory as this is what virus infection do. If you can isolate it end the process and delete the files manually.

- There really is nothing more annoying than when your internet homepage changes at start up or when you query a search phrase on a popular search engine and are then diverted to another website or engine. This is another sign of an infection and this can be sorted out by running a scan with a free virus removal tool.

- When you discover unknown items on your desktop and toolbars in your explorer bar this could be the work of a virus. You should track the files to their sources on your drive and uninstall them.

- Experiencing sudden crashes and system reboots is a common symptom which you should lookout for but this can also be as a result of registry problems. Sometimes you might even have a blue screen which will indicate white coding which usually indicates that you might require reformatting.

What Does A Virus Tool Do?

A virus removal tool will scan through your entire windows system as well as the registry and will root out files, folders and configurations which appear to be infected and of a harmful nature. It does this by looking for specific signatures which it has in its database and matching them to those within the files on your hard drive. This is why automatic updates are so important and why it is not advised to attempt to manually remove files as they might be important which could cause windows to stop functioning.

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