One of the best ways to protect yourself from computer viruses is to educate yourself about them. There are many types of malicious software that can infect your system and potentially steal personal information about you. To avoid rambling, I am only going to cover the most common ones. Viruses are a piece of code that can copy itself in order to damage your computer. Trojan horses are a type of malware that enters the system looking like a standard piece of code but in fact had malicious code inside it. Lastly, spam comes in the form of email messages that involve the user opening an infected attachment piece of code that attacks the users system for one purpose or another. These are the most common forms of infection that our anti-virus software combats every day.
If anyone has used a computer with any consistency, they have come across a virus or the like at one time or another. Most anti-virus software finds these pesky pieces of code and deletes them before they can do any harm. If some does not employ anti-virus software, there is a good chance that they have a number of viruses on their system and they don’t even know it.
Taking the time to educate yourself in the various ways of computer infection can help you avoid accidentally getting your system infected in the future. Keep in mind that even though you use all the precautions that you can while using your computer, its anti-virus software cannot stop every potential attack is may receive. Hackers are crafty and constantly coming up with new ways to scam people. The anti-virus software companies need to update their software as these issues arise often times putting them one step behind the competition.
Anti-virus software and diligent use of VPN services can protect many people for the basic functions they use their computers for. For the others out there, some malicious software gets through the cracks and that’s where educating yourself can go a long way. When you know what to look for, you can often times avoid unknowingly becoming infected.
What are your thoughts on viruses? Do you agree that the examples I gave are the most common types? If not, which ones would you add to the list or remove?
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