Virus and Its Threats

By completing this module you will be able to understand what is Virus and its Threats, Tips, and tools to prevent virus into the system; A virus is a computer program which can copy itself or infect the system without the knowledge of the user. A virus can spread from one system to the other system, whenever a file with a virus in an infected system is accessed from another system. Some viruses may cause damage to the system by infecting the files, deleting the files, formatting the hard disk, etc. To protect the system from viruses one should have knowledge of each program or a file they download into their computer. Since it is difficult, we can use anti-virus software which can help the system by protecting it from viruses.

Tips and tools to prevent virus into the system:

  • Keep anti-virus software up-to-date and make sure that it is working properly.
  • Scan the files with anti-virus software before you download it from the Internet and execute it.
  • Be careful while exchanging the files between the systems through disks or through the network . While using the disk make sure that it is write-protected so that it prevents accidental deletion and changes made to the files on the disk.
  • While using Microsoft office make sure that the macro virus protection option is enabled.

Note: A Macro virus is a computer virus that infects Microsoft Word and similar applications by inserting some undesirable text into the documents or by making some changes to the documents.

  • Take a backup of the files which you feel important. This will help you in recovering the file when it is completely affected by the virus.
  • Scan the system with anti-virus software daily and keep your operating system up to date with all the latest patches.
  • Some viruses start executing as soon as they appear on the Outlook Express preview pane. So disable that option.
  • Beware of the latest virus threats which may help you in detecting them and take the appropriate action to avoid it.
  • List of anti-virus tools available for preventing virus into the system are given below:

AVG free, Quick Heal, Avira Antivirus, Cleanwin Antivirus,cleaner4.2, AVG Internet security, Bit defender free edition, Bit defender antivirus 2008, Avast 4 Home edition, McAfee Avert Stinger 3.8.0, ClamWin (open source) free antivirus.