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The Different Types of Computer Viruses & What They Can Do
Computer viruses are programs which are created with the sole intent of disrupting the operation of a computer. These computer viruses are usually placed into computers without the permission or knowledge of the person who owns the computer. A computer virus can cripple an entire computer system or simply cause some problems which might be a minor or major annoyance to the computer owner. This is a list of some of the more popular versions of computer viruses:
Boot sector computer viruses
The boot sector viruses become a whole lot popular in the eighties. This was when computer technology actually hit the mainstream. Quite like the name, boot sector viruses infect the boot sectors of a computer. These boot sectors are usually located in the bootable disk or in particular location in your computer hard drive. A number of these boot sector viruses in the past include names such as Disk Killer and others like Michelangelo.
Email viruses
These sorts of viruses use e-mail in order to transmit viruses from one computer to the other. Someone may send you an e-mail that has an attachment that has a virus in it. When you open the attachment your computer actually gets infected. Some of them actually copy themselves to all the e-mail addresses in your address book and forward themselves to everyone else that you know. This way the virus gets to spread as quickly as it can. If you want to avoid getting infected by viruses then you should avoid opening e-mails from anyone that you don’t know. Some e-mail programs actually now come with the capability to scan through attachments with antivirus programs. They can easily identify any virus programs before you even spot them. Some e-mail programs are capable of separating e-mail files that are potential spam into spam folders.
Companion viruses
These sorts of viruses usually affect your computer by infecting your computers MS-DOS system. They operate by creating dangerous program that looks like the other valid files that are on your computer. If you enter the wrong command into the prompt of your computer you may end up executing a virus instead of the program that you really wanted to run. Newer operating systems like Windows XP prevent such viruses as they don‘t require you to use the MS-DOS prompt.
Trojan horse viruses
Trojan horse viruses are actually malware, they are usually thought of as viruses because of the amount of damage that they can do to your computer. These viruses are actually quite tricky, they appear as something as innocuous as a screensaver. When you install the screensaver you end up with a virus on your system. The viruses may then leave a backdoor for hackers to enter into your computer. When these hackers enter they can then proceed to steal personal information such as bank account information, credit card information, passwords or bank account information.
If you want to protect yourself from computer viruses such as the types listed above. It is absolutely essential that you get the best quality of protection software available. You may also want a firewall that prevents other people accessing your computer when you’re on a network.
