Computer Viruses – A Hot Topic

No matter who you talk to, everyone has either had a computer virus or knows of someone who has gone through the agony of trying to get rid of the problem. Computer viruses are a hot topic that seem to affect everyone who owns a computer system, whether at work or at home. The companies that produce software programs that catch and delete these computer viruses are constantly updating their databases for virus types and definitions so that they can better protect your system against all the newest viruses.

Creating virus protection programs is a multi-billion dollar business that is growing more and more everyday. The number of viruses being created and uploaded to the Internet is growing at an astounding rate of a new one every eighteen seconds! This definitely keeps the virus protection companies on their toes with research and development.

Because these viruses copy themselves to any computer system they come in contact with, the spread of viruses throughout a computer network or the Internet is a very fast and deadly thing to happen to your computer. Because computer viruses are always a hot topic, they routinely are the subject of magazine articles and forum topics online. While some viruses do nothing more than frustrate you with pop-up ads or other messages, others are completely malicious and set out from the start to destroy the files and operating systems of your computer.

Of the 53,000 viruses that have been identified and classed, more than 80 percent of them have been classed as malicious and capable of harming your computer system or data files. These computer viruses behave in much the same way as biological viruses by contaminating any computer systems they come in contact with. These self-executing programs are generally very small and work at damaging the way your computer works or by damaging or completely removing key system files.

Computer viruses are  such a hot topic, that more and more people want to find out about the destructive power of these programs. A great many people find out about virus protection programs and immediately rush out to get the newest protection programs or they ensure that their computer virus protection is up to date. Good move!

Many magazine and news articles about computer viruses may have the effect of sometimes panicking people into believing that their computers are constantly at risk. Although the problem may not be so dire as this, the loss of time and money you will spend to fix up an infected computer is real. Having a good anti-virus program and current updates is one of the best ways to protect your computer system against virus attacks.

Unless you are more at risk than most, a full computer scan weekly should be enough. Daily scans, though recommended are overkill. But this must also be coupled with good file habits such as scanning all downloaded files with the anti-virus program before opening them.

Common Sense Virus Protection

There is no question that if you are doing something illegal such as looking for software with a crack ( software you would normally pay top dollar for with a licence number), downloading illegally shared video or music files with programs like limeware or bit torrent, you are more at risk of getting a computer virus than if you are simply browsing the internet and checking email from friends.

Unfortunately even so, virus are like those big cockroaches that fly through the door when you leave it open. You may not even be aware it is there, until a spyware or adware virus starts slowing your computer down and interfering with your programs. Checking for spyware or adware regularly is also important.

So use your common sense. Enable a virus program, enable a firewall, enable virus checking of email. Virus check every download. If you cannot afford to maintain a prime virus subscription with Norton, McAffee, Trend Micro or Nod32 etc – Download the free version of AVG or Avast.

It is also a good idea, before unzipping or opening,  to take the time to ensure that the file you thought you were downloading is indeed the file you have. For instance, a file that labels itself as a movie file and is less than one megabyte in size is not a movie file. Movie files are generally nearly a thousand times that size and therefore, the file you have downloaded is most likely not a movie file and may in fact be a computer virus.

Be hyper careful about virus safeguards on a work computer.

Computer viruses will always be a hot topic at the office when a virus attack manages to get past protection protocols put in place by the network administrators. All it takes is one person allowing some executable files they have been sent to open and start replicating itself through the network of computers to make life Hell for that company.

Virus attacks can cripple office systems very quickly resulting in lost revenue and consumer confidence which in large companies can even affect the way that stocks in that company are traded resulting in even further financial losses. That is why it is so important for larger businesses to have comprehensive computer virus protection programs in place.

These virus programs are much more detailed and powerful than the anti-virus programs that many consumers have protecting their home computer systems. Because the fallout from a virus attack is much more financially damaging to a large corporation, the virus protection program needs to be much more robust and capable of protecting multiple systems within the corporation. Computer viruses are a hot topic among businesses simply because of the way that they can affect the company financially.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top 10 Precautions to Protect Windows Computer Against Virus, Spyware and Malware (taragana.com)
• AVG Anti-Virus and Walling Data Safeguard Hospital Network’s Health (prweb.com)
• FBI Warns About Online Census Scams (techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
• Do Not Fall For This Scam : Dr. Guard (pctechmojo.com)