There are so many different forms of malware, or viruses, and each seems to have its own unique purpose. Of course there are levels of damage with these sorts of malicious programs, which range from being a minor annoyance to completely shutting down and wiping your computer. It’s important that you know what you’re dealing with as soon as the problem arises so that you can minimize the damage caused.
Viruses which infiltrate your computer or network can display themselves in different ways. Some pop up messages in text, image, audio or video form which can range from garble to random threats to advertisements. Viruses can use up a huge amount of the computer memory and can effectively overload your system, causing it to crash. They may also force data loss or complete failure of your computer system. Worms are slightly different – they cause harm initially by using up your bandwidth as they are transmitting themselves, and can afterwards use their ‘payload’ (a snippet of code), to spread, delete, encrypt or steal files from your computer. Trojans can effectively do the same damage as worms, and can be quite complex in their purpose – they can set up remote access, can destroy data, can download programs to your computer, can change your dial-up connection, and can disable security software, amongst other things.
In essence, malware can be programmed to do just about anything, and it is in your best interests to make sure you have the right anti-virus software installed to properly protect you, your data, and your network.
Viruses which infiltrate your computer or network can display themselves in different ways. Some pop up messages in text, image, audio or video form which can range from garble to random threats to advertisements. Viruses can use up a huge amount of the computer memory and can effectively overload your system, causing it to crash. They may also force data loss or complete failure of your computer system. Worms are slightly different – they cause harm initially by using up your bandwidth as they are transmitting themselves, and can afterwards use their ‘payload’ (a snippet of code), to spread, delete, encrypt or steal files from your computer. Trojans can effectively do the same damage as worms, and can be quite complex in their purpose – they can set up remote access, can destroy data, can download programs to your computer, can change your dial-up connection, and can disable security software, amongst other things.
In essence, malware can be programmed to do just about anything, and it is in your best interests to make sure you have the right anti-virus software installed to properly protect you, your data, and your network.