How Computer Viruses Work

A computer virus is something that none of us want to deal with. It gets inside our computers and does discrete things that we certainly don’t want it to. Sometimes our antivirus (if we have one) will stop the computer virus, often it does not. The anti-virus software may not have been updated to protect the computer from a newer computer virus. It’s important to learn how a computer virus works so that we can protect ourselves and our beloved data.

A computer virus is a malware program that gets inside of your computer through something you may have clicked on or downloaded and replicates itself in program and data files or somewhere into the hard drive. The computer is then said to be infected. The virus can steal private information, corrupt data, or instruct the computer to do self-harmful tasks.

How can computer viruses get in?

Software bugs

If a software has a bug, a hacker might use a virus to exploit that bug in order to infect the computer and spread the virus. It’s always important that you install any updates to files (updates that have been previous checked by an anti-virus software).

.Exe files

Computer viruses will also be attached to .exe files. When the user attempts to launch the infected program, the virus is released and begins its reign of terror on the computer.

Classes of computer viruses

One of the ways to classify computer viruses is where they reside: in binary executables (such as .EXE or .COM files), data files (such as Microsoft Word documents or PDF files), or in the boot sector of the host’s hard drive (or some combination of all of these).

Resident Computer Viruses

These computer viruses install themselves as part of the operating system. When the operating system attempts to retrieve something, the virus attacks and replicates.

Macro Computer Viruses

A macro virus is a computer virus that is embedded as a macro in a document , often in a email. So when the person opens it, the virus code executes and infects the computer.

Boot sector Computer Viruses

As its name mention, this virus targets the boot sector of the hard drive or removable storage.

Anti-virus

Software can intercept these programs before they are installed. They typically run a scan and notify you if there’s a problem with any portion of your hard drive or any of your files. You want to make sure you’re updating this software all the time to the latest edition.

Does your computer have a virus and you don’t know where it is, what it’s doing and how to get rid of it and you live in the Charlotte area? Contact the experts at Computer Doc to restore your computer to its pre-virus state.

Computer Viruses

How Computer Viruses Work