Here is your essay on Computer Viruses !
The age of information has essentially made communication faster with advent of computer and internet. Human interaction has revolutionized with information including data, pictures, emails, programs etc. being sent within milliseconds from one part of the world to another.
But every technology howsoever secure and protected does have some loopholes. So is the network of computers which can also communicate malicious programs superfluously without the knowledge and intent of the users of the computer system. Such an attack is called as virus attack and is an electronic infection affecting your system and destroying useful information.
A computer virus is basically a software program that transfers from one system to another connected on a common network. Computer operations like use of email system, stored information on the hard disk, accessibility to other resources on the desktop can get difficult or corrupted after a virus attack as the program renders some or the other functionality in your computer useless.
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Most often it is email attachments with unusual extensions that are used to spread such viruses. Any funny images, greetings, audio files that come in as attachments from suspicious sources should never be opened as they may be viruses. Not all malware that affect your computer are viruses. Some like adware and spyware cannot reproduce and thus cannot be termed as computer viruses. Active threats affecting your computer are generally trojans or worms and not viruses. A virus is able to damage the information and cause harm to your computer only after it is able to execute the code and write information to the memory. Code injection wherein executable files have some malicious codes written inside is one common way in which virus is sent over to spread on multiple computers over internet. It is the very nature of the virus to multiply by replication.
Even FTP for downloading can lead to a virus attack which can come maliciously along with an otherwise harmless software program. A virus attaches itself to an executable program so that it gets executed without the user even knowing it.
Events that can result from virus attack can range from harmless to extremely destructive.
Irritable messages on the computer screen, pop-up windows that continue to come and not go even when trying to exit, data modified on your computer, corrupted or erased hard disk, damage to files etc. are some symptoms of virus attack.
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Since the use of internet cannot be stopped and you can also not determine if the information downloaded contained any viruses, it is advisable to use credible anti-virus software with latest updates. It warns you about any threats that a file or any information downloaded from the internet or a copied over infected file contains.
Removing a virus and undoing the damage it causes to your computer can be more stressful than preventing attack by using strong anti-virus program that can detect malware as well as Trojans, worms and viruses and also eliminate them before replication. Effective anti-viruses are available which help to detect and remove viruses that may attack your computer.