Computer viruses are software programs written for causing serious damage to your PC with stealing your sensitive information maliciously spreading from one computer to another. It’s really one of worst nightmares PC users can have when turning on their system and realizing it’s infected. Even today, most of computer users understand what virus is and how they can protect themselves, but a lot of people don’t know how the virus spreads. Viruses has been here for very long time. In the beginnings, they were spread with floppy disks. Sharing programs through floppy disks was very common in era before internet, so people used this to put viruses inside. Nowadays, most of viruses are spread through the use of internet. Before it could take days, but now hours or minutes to infect a system. Hacker can learn all the stuff about you with using Trojan virus because your PC could hold sensible information that could be used against you, even identity theft are common. Protecting your PC from viruses using antivirus software that is constantly updating is essential thing you can do. Don’t forget to enable your firewall security that is already installed with your windows system. Now lets talk about way in which virus can spread.
Computer viruses are usually spread through lots of ways. Spreading through emails is really common, because it is attached to file you are downloading or visiting link. There are people who are doing really nasty stuff. They make little viruses that are embedded in pictures, videos and then they post link to all the social media sites, trust me one click on it is enough and your system is going to pop up on their screen. Then, they can control your entire PC. This is really scary, because they can turn on your web camera not knowing you are being spied, or monitoring your pc activity. They can even take all your passwords and see your credit card numbers when you are typing when ordering something, or transfer pictures, imagine all your private pictures seen by someone and this is just one of the ways you can be infected.
Don’t fall for a trap because viruses can disguise themselves very sneaky. When you sign in your email account it could look like you’ve got message from your friend with their name and address written. But it’s too late when you realize it’s actually a virus. Once a virus is in your system it will begin to perform some of the actions to attach to hard drive, system files or some other files by creating new copy of itself with file on hard drive. It will also run itself everytime you boot up your PC because it modifies your system registry. There are always new viruses being made and for this reason antivirus companies have to experiment with new ways of protection and upgrading their existing antivirus programs. So important thing is to always keep on with updates of your software, so that it can recognize new virus threats and remove them quickly before bigger damage occur.
You can also get infected by simply website visit. Especially if you are on gambling or adult pages. To protect yourself from this method, there is option in your anti virus to enable protection from untrusted websites, so when you write something on Google or you want to visit certain page there’s going to be green check if webpage is safe to visit.
If your PC is connected to larger network, you can get virus not by your fault. This happens when someone downloads virus by accident and in minutes entire systems are being infected. Be aware even when downloading from torrent websites. Yes inside could be real movie or game but one of those files will contain virus. Torrent websites are know to be great playground for hackers. One of really most nerve wracking ways to become infected is downloading fake antivirus program. What an irony. There are many antiviruses that claim to be free, but they actually do the total opposite to your system.
As an owner of PC system or even business where multiple PC’s are connected, it’s your duty to do everything in your power to protect your company and yourself. Educate yourself so that you can prevent any chances of something falling through the cracks. Below you can check infographic which shows the ways that computer virus is spreading online:
