Virus Facts

The most important thing to do is to have a good, up to date anti-virus program running on your computer. Having these programs on your computer is not enough though. Since new viruses are always coming out, anti-virus companies have to write a definition file that will allow their anti-virus program to find these new viruses. This is why updating the DAT files for your program is important. You must make sure to update these programs on a regular basis.

There are many different kinds of viruses and they are defined by what they do.

A "virus" is a program that replicates itself and affects other programs. Viruses do not always cause damage and may not display symptoms, but they can, and sometimes they can be very destructive.

A "worm" is a computer program that replicates itself. Worms do not infect other programs, but instead, they send themselves to other users through e-mail, IRC and Instant Messaging programs.

A "trojan" is a malicious program that pretends to be a normal program. These programs do something that a user does not expect them to do. They are not considered a virus in the true sense of the word since they do not spread themselves to other users.

A "boot sector virus" places malicious code into the first sector of a floppy or hard disk. When the floppy or hard disk is run, the virus is run and performs certain instructions that gain control of basic functions of a computer, and do damage.

A "Denial of Service "(DOS) is an action that occurs when an infected computer is taken over by someone other than the normal user. The computer is then used to prevent the normal functioning of a system and keeps other users from accessing those systems.

A "macro virus" is written using a macro programming language and then attached to an ordinary document file such as Word or Excel. When the document is run, the virus unloads its damage and copies itself into other documents to continue its spread.

A "VBS virus" is one that is written using Visual Basic Scripting. Because of a security hole in Outlook and Outlook Express, this virus can be run without clicking on an attachment.