Security

What Harm Do Computer Viruses Actually Do?

Anti-Spyware-Protection
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A computer virus is basically a program that you do not want and that invades your hard drive. It can do a whole lot of damage in various different areas. Generally, someone will write a computer program and embed with something harmful on purpose. As soon as the program gets downloaded onto a computer, the virus will start to damage the computer and its information. All viruses are different, and there are literally thousands of viruses in existence today.

Why Would People Create Viruses?

The short and simple answer to that is: because they can. Creating viruses is a complex task and people like to challenge their skills, even if it is in a harmful way. The reality is also that it is impossible to completely stop people from writing viruses. So long as electronic devices continue to exist, there will be people trying to come up with ways to alter the way these computers work. This is why the only defense you really have is to install a computer antivirus program. One of the most vital things about that is that it is regularly updated, because new viruses are created daily as well. Hence, spend some time comparing the best antivirus 2016 that is out there.

Once a virus gets into your computer, it will find a place to hide and start to duplicate itself. Just like a virus in human cells, in other words. Sometimes, they lay dormant for quite some time, but every time data is saved, the virus is saved as well. Once the virus has duplicated itself enough times, it will start to cause damage on your computer.

The ROM (read only memory) on your computer doesn’t get affected by a virus. The problem is in the RAM (random access memory) and in your disks. This means that some viruses can literally be destroyed if you shut your computer down. However, the vast majority of virus program writers will make sure that their program can remain active even if you do switch down your device.

They do this by making sure the virus actually gets into your computer disk or hard drive. In so doing, when you switch your computer back on, the virus will start to duplicate again as well. In most cases, it will be in a single program but if you then switch another one, which most of us do all the time, the virus will start to infect another program as well. Soon, everything will be infected.

Millions upon millions of dollars are being invested in trying to make computers more resistant to viruses. However, it is a true cat and mouse game and nobody is entirely clear on who is the cat and who is the mouse. For every virus that is written, an antivirus program is also written, and vice versa.

There are many different antivirus programs out there, luckily, so you should be able to protect your machine by doing some quick research.