Computers are everywhere but they are also vulnerable to a number of threats. The computer system’s biggest threat is the dreaded virus.
A virus is basically malicious computer code that has the ability to cause havoc in a number of ways. It may work by destroying the data and programs on affected systems. It may log keystrokes in order to gain sensitive information such as passwords.
Different kinds of computer viruses are known to be in the world wild web at any given time. Here is a look at some of the some of the common types of viruses.
Macro viruses
These are known to be the most widespread viruses partly because of the popularity of programs for which macros are written. Moreover, being platform independent also adds to the overall threat posed by these viruses. In fact macro viruses are known to have already caused much more damage than almost any other type of known computer virus.
Network viruses
Again, these are also an extremely widespread type of virus. These viruses are found in Local Area Networks and are known to spread using the shared network resources. In fact they are so dangerous that if they enter a LAN, they can even choke the entire bandwidth of the LAN which means that doing any kind of work on the network becomes an extremely slow and painful task. Commonly known Network viruses include SQLSlammer and Nimda.
Logic Bombs
Yet another type of computer virus. They can be inserted in a computer program. The Logic bomb is triggered when any function of the host program or any other program is used. Common cases of Logic Bombs are known to have triggered on a given date, generally the April Fools Day or on Friday the 13th (A date considered to be unlucky in a number of countries all over the world). The logic bombs can even delete files if triggered.
Companion Viruses
Companion Viruses are known to be effective on MS-DOS based systems only and therefore all the 9X versions of Microsoft Windows are also affected by it. This is obviously a much smaller threat than it used to be. This virus is known to create new files with the .com extension, though there are some reports of it being capable of creating EXE files. As Windows XP, (the most common OS) is not based on DOS, the threat of these viruses is subsiding.
Boot Sector Viruses
Another really nasty type of virus is the Boot Sector Virus. These viruses are capable of damaging the hard drive itself because they reside in the Sector Zero and are capable of attacking the Master Boot Record of the drive. These viruses generally used floppy drives to spread and have started to decline as the usage of floppy drives has subsided.
Almost all the different kinds of computer viruses can be removed using good anti virus software so it is always recommended that you should have one installed and updated in your computer.
If your not 100% sure that your computer is safe then you should be. Visit the Free Anti Virus Downloads website, see what’s on offer for free and learn the various ways there are of protecting your PC.
Author: Dawn Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News
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