Introduction:
A computer virus is nothing but malicious code that causes problems in your computer system. It does so by replicating itself and inserting malicious code inside other files. Not only files but viruses also have the capability to infect computer programs. And this could lead the program to behave in an unexpected way.
Furthermore, viruses can also steal your sensitive pieces of information and can send them to the virus creator. Not only this they can also interrupt services, download malware from the internet and so on. Every infected file gives the feeling to the users as legit programs and this tricks the users to run programs or files with viruses on their device.
Also, a point to note about viruses is that some viruses can play non-harmful pranks on your computer. And on the other hand, some viruses can cause serious problems on your computer, or can even cause permanent damage to hard disks. In this article, we will also look for safe practices that you should perform while using the computer. And at last, we will look at the different types of viruses in this post.
How Does Computer Viruses Spread?
When talking about the computer virus, the most common question that will strike your mind that how a virus spreads on multiple devices? And let me tell you that virus spreads to various devices because of many factors. In which some factors I’m listing here, so firstly it can be from email attachments. Any email attachment whether a text file or image can have a virus code attached to it.
Furthermore, it can be any programs or files downloaded from the internet. Also, there are chances of spreading viruses from scam links posted on social media. So these were the few factors by which infected files spread across devices. Moreover, one of the common factors of spreading infected files from one device to another is through pen drives or flash drives.
To understand that take this situation, suppose computer A is infected with a virus and computer B is clean. When the pen drive is attached to computer A and the user copies infected files unknowingly to the flash drive. And then paste those files on computer B. Then slowly computer B will get infected with those pasted files. And by this way, computer viruses spread from one device to another by pen drives.
Signs of virus:
Although there are many signs of an infected computer system, in which I will list here the most common signs and they are:
- Pop-up Windows: You may get frequent pop-ups on your computer system. And this can be an indication of infected computer. When talking about the unsual pop-ups these can send you to malware website or can trick you to install any programs that may appear legitimate, but in reality it might be not.
- Changed Homepage: If any virus has attacked your computer system then there might be a chance that the homepage of default browser will change. Most probably it will direct you to some unknown website and in case if you want to reset that you will be unable to do that.
- Frequent Crashes: As I have mentioned above in this post a virus can cause serious damage to the hard disk drive. And when the virus does so your operating system might freeze or not respond properly. It can even prevent the OS from coming back to the responding state.
- Unwanted mails: Your email id might get in control of the virus creator and then that person can send infected emails to your email contacts. And that from your own mail id and this causes various kinds of problems.
- Unusual Slow computer: A sudden drop in the processing power of your computer may be caused by the virus.
- Unknown Programs At Startups: When you start the computer and notice unknown programs running. Then in that case your system may be infected with the virus. Or even you can find out active running programs by using Operating System provided softwares or tools.
- Unusual system Behaviour: While using the computer your system might automatically shut down such things can be done by virus.
Ways to protect computer from viruses:
There are several best practices that you should apply to keep your system clean. All those things are mentioned below:
- Use Anti-Virus Software: Best way to protect your system from viruses is to have anti-virus software on your system. Every Anti-Virus software has a database consisting of virus details. Such that when scanning the computer system, the Anti-Virus software checks for all those virus details in every files. And the software alerts you if any match is found.
- Scan the attachments: If you get suspicious email with attachments. Then the best thing is to scan those attachments before downloading them. By doing so you will be far away from the problems.
- Use Genuine Software: Do not use pirated software. These types of pirated software comes packaged with viruses. And this can harm your computer system or can even burn your system’s motherboard. Try to use their free alternatives.
- Scan the files: Always scan the files downloaded from the internet. By this way you can be assured that your system is clean.
So now the time is to discuss the main part of this blog post which is the types of viruses that exists.
9 types of computer viruses are:
- Boot Sector Virus: Your computer drive has a special sector that points to the OS. What this kind of virus does it attacks that sector or controls the boot sector and makes the machine unusable.
- Web Scripting Virus: Almost every browser defends from malicious web scripts. But older browsers enable the attacker to run these scripts on local device.
- Browser Hijacker: These kind of virus hijacks home page url, your favorites sites lists and so on. Furthermore it can redirect you in a phishing sites or malicious sites, that can steal your details or infect your computer.
- Resident Virus: This kind of virus can access the computer memory and stay dormant until the specific date, time, or a user performs any action.
- Direct Action Virus: This type of virus remains dormant until the file with virus gets executed.
- Polymorphic virus: This type of virus changes its code everytime upon the execution of the infected file. This makes detection of virus difficult for the anti-virus software.
- File Infector Virus: File infector Virus usually inserts malicious code into executable files.
- Multipartite virus: This kind of virus infects and spreads by various methods. It has the capability to infect both program files and system sectors.
- Macro virus: A macro virus is that type of virus which is developed using the macro language. This is the same language which helps in the development of software programs such as MS word or Excel. And this type of virus spread when you open the infected file, most probably from email attachments.
Final words:
In conclusion, I must say that an effective anti-virus program is a must on the computer system. This simple investment can save your hard work and can ensure that your system will run smoothly. Furthermore, there are various ways by which you can keep your computer protected, and that includes precautionary measures along with anti-virus software. And that’s all for this post, let me know your thoughts in the comment section. And thank you for reading this post And I will see you in the next one.
