Computer Virus
A computer virus is a program, file, ect. that can infect your computer, and can delete essential files or programs. Some viruses can be a hoax or joke, others can be vital to your computer's system. The differences between the other malicious things on the Internet (for example a Trojan Horse), is that viruses can clone themselves to make them harder to get rid of. Some viruses can bundle multiple malicious files with them.
Contents
Types
Trojan Horse
Main Article: Trojan Horse
The goal of a Trojan Horse virus is to install itself secretly, to allow a backdoor to your computer. Thus, it could now do a number of things, Botnets, Malware, Adware, Keyloggers, etc. Computers are usually infected by downloading them bundled with some other software.
Adware
Main Article: Adware
A virus that plays, or shows unwanted ads. An example would be Pop-ups/Pop-unders. It typically slows down your computer. Some Adware display ads that have links to Malware.
Spyware
Main Article: Spyware
A term used to describe software that performs certain behaviors, generally without appropriately obtaining your consent first, such as advertising, collecting personal information, and changing the configuration of your computer.
Keyloggers
Main article: Keylogger
A program that records all of your keystrokes, and sometimes even mouse movements, and images of your screen. This is obviously bad, since it records your financial information, passwords, and the like.
Avoiding getting infected
Having a regular scan of your computer with an anti-virus, and anti-adware/malware.[1]
You might also want to see this topic, on what the WOT community has to say:
[2]
As for anti-adware, LavaSoft is a good choice[3]. Also, Spybot search and Destroy is notable [4].
More ways to protect your system
You can also block harmful websites too, using the HOSTS file. The HOSTS file on Windows XP is in: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Example: typing something like "127.0.0.1" or "website.com" would result in "website.com" always redirecting to "127.0.0.1" (localhost).
Be sure to save your hosts file NOT using "Save As", because it won't work if the extension is .txt
See Also:
