How a virus enters our computer ?

The anti-virus software is a necessity today to ensure the security of your computer and your personal information. It is essential that you understand how the virus into your computer and how to prevent them in.

Unfortunately for us, there are many people who get up writing small programs to find ways on our computers and in most cases destroy personal files, data or steal the identity. This article describes some of the steps we can take to defend ourselves.

What is a computer virus?

A computer virus is a small program that piggybacks on legitimate programs. This is called a virus because it shares the features of a biological virus that is passed from one computer to another in the same manner as a biological virus passes from one person to another person. Once a computer virus is running, it can infect other programs and documents.

Types of computer viruses:

There are several types of virus but the most common are:

- Virus: a small software program that connects to other programs and / or documents
- E-mail viruses: these viruses circulate by email and often replicates itself by itself by automatically mailing to people in the victim's address book
- Trojan horses: it is a computer program that claims to do one thing but does another instead, as erase your whole hard drive
- Worms: it is a program that finds a small hole in the security of computer networks and replicates itself on other computers on the network.

How a virus enters our computer and how do they spread?

Some of the most common ways a virus can get on your computer are:

- Downloading a program from an unknown source and the running
- Opening a file attachment in an e-mail
- Sharing of infected files from one computer to another on a floppy
- Opening of an electronic greeting card, audio and video

What are the signs of a virus, am I infected?
- Your computer is running slower than normal
- The computer stops or hangs
- Your computer crashes and restarts every few minutes
- The computer restarts on its own and does not work properly
- Applications on your computer is not working properly
- Hard drives or drives are not accessible
- Your computer may not print correctly
- Unusual error messages appear
- Menus and dialogs are distorted

What kind of damage a virus can do?
The damage a computer virus can do depends on the type of virus it is. Here are some common threats.

- They can delete or modify files. Some viruses will delete all your files or even reformat your hard disk to make your computer unusable
- Other viruses will steal personal information such as numbers credit card account numbers and passwords
- Some viruses will slow your computer dramatically
- Some viruses modify the security settings allow hackers access to your computer and steal information
- Other viruses such as worms infect computers on a network

What you can do to protect your computer from viruses?
There are several ways to protect your computer from viruses:
- Do not open attachments you receive in an e-mail even if you know the person who sent it. This person may not be aware they are sending an infected file.
- If you receive an e-mail with an attachment from someone you do not know, delete the e-mail right away.
- Before you copy a file on your computer, scan with an anti-virus
- If you download a file from the Internet, copy it to your hard drive, scan it with an anti-virus software before opening the file or run it.
- If some one sends you greeting card or joke that you have to start to see and be around and stay on the safe side and do not open
- The best defense against computer viruses and use an antivirus program that scans your e-mail, act as a firewall, hard disk and keep updated with the latest viruses. It is reported that more than 500 new viruses discovered each month.

Fortunately for us, there are a number of software available to prevent, detect and eliminate computer viruses. I recommend the one below, I use it and it is one of the most popular anti-virus around.

By Adam Addison