Viruses

A virus is simply a program designed to cause harm to someone else's computer. A virus spreads by duplicating and attaching itself to other files. The extent of the damage depends on the virus.

There are tens of thousands of viruses.
Some virus damage is insignificant but inconvenient. Some virus damage is disastrous, putting the computer system out of action by crashing memory, erasing files or corrupting data

How do you catch a virus?

Viruses are written by malicious programmers who wish to cause problems to other computer users.
The primary source of infection these days are e-mail attachments followed by illegal software and infected files from the Internet.
Also, by putting an infected floppy disk into your computer - the virus can automatically copy itself from the infected disk into your computerIf you have up to date anti virus software installed this will immediately warn you of any infection. If not, there is usually no evidence of the virus and the user is not usually aware of it until something goes wrong.

How can they be prevented?

Viruses can be prevented by taking sensible precautions, including:

• using up to date anti virus software. E-mail attachments are now the biggest source of virus
• spread and many e-mail servers are now installed with anti-virus software.
• not allowing other users to use their own floppy disks on your system
• not allowing users to take the company's disks home to use on their own PC
• only downloading files from reputable Internet sites
• write-protecting disks
• avoiding software from unreliable sources
• backing up data regularly