Almost everyone today works with computers. The massive use of this technique, unfortunately, has led to the appearance of pest programs that interfere with PC operation. They can destroy their file structure in disks, they can damage any information that people store on their laptops, tablets.
What is a virus on a computer?
A computer virus is a specially designed program capable of making its own copies and launching them into system resources. The user notices this when the work of his equipment is disrupted, some applications do not start, the computer stops working. The world of these malicious programs has not yet been explored. New and more advanced pests are constantly appearing. Even experienced system administrators often do not know how they are distributed and what they are. Antivirus programs are trying to fight them, they are also constantly improving. Each new virus is a new job for those programmers who help protect our computers.
Computer virus authors
Who writes such malicious applications, why does he / they ruin the lives of many people and entire companies? These "writers" are divided into several groups:
- Novice programmers who are just mastering the programming path. For some of them to make their own computer virus is an occasion to declare themselves, become famous. As a rule, this is petty hooliganism. Usually, schoolchildren and students write fairly simple viruses that are easily intercepted by antivirus programs.
- Security professionals in order to check for security vulnerabilities.
- Public services, for example, the FSB, the army and other law enforcement agencies.
- Thieves and scammers. They want to make money like this by blocking access to programs for users, then they ask them to send a message to a specific number in order to return it. They steal passwords for free access to the Internet. Be careful, sometimes it’s enough just to leave the site of the scam site, do not send SMS anywhere in such cases.
- Large-scale fraudsters. For them, the virus is a way of stealing personal information about people. Passport data, credit card numbers can steal . They may be interested in any access codes for electronic money.
- The most dangerous are lone wolves, which the whole world offended by something. Their goal is to infect as many devices as possible in order to harm. It is difficult to understand their behavior.
The similarity of a computer virus with a biological
The pest program by the stages of existence can be compared with a conventional biological virus. In the latent phase, it is not yet acting. The incubation period occurs when the virus begins to make copies and introduce them into the environment. After that, he goes into the active phase, multiplies and manifests itself. Like an ordinary virus, a pest spreads quickly, it may not even cause inconvenience to anyone for a while, and then it starts to act. It is difficult to kill this outbreak; it is better to check your computer for viruses on time.
Protection methodsTo protect your equipment from unwanted intruders:
- Use only the official (licensed) anti-virus program.
- Check for viruses in the program before starting it.
- Avoid sites that have a bad reputation.
Signs that an infection has occurred
Consider the most characteristic features:
- Strange messages or images on the screen.
- Unpleasant letters from an anonymous sender.
- Arbitrary sound signals emitted by the computer.
- Letters are sent from you, but you do not know about it.
- Incomprehensible computer freezes.
- There is an arbitrary launch of programs.
- Frequent crashes when working with applications.
- Long loading of the operating system.
- The appearance on the computer of new files that are not created by you.
- The loud work of the hard drive.
- The Internet browser lives its own life, it changes the start pages.
- Files are missing or distorted.
As you can see, a virus program can manifest itself in different ways.
What actions to take?
1. If you find a computer virus, do not try to search for an executable file, as this can only spread malicious code.
2. Turn off the Internet.
3. Remove all drives that have been connected, you will need to scan them later to make sure they are not infected.
4. Disable active applications.
5. From the other PC you need to download the latest anti-virus program.
It is important to do a full scan of your computer, then restart it. If it does not work out, then contact the professionals for further diagnosis! Remember that the prevention of any virus is better than its treatment!