I do not know much about viruses, yet I know that it is important to keep your computer clean from viruses. They can make your computer slower, or erase your documents and other things you have on them
Questions...
1. What is a computer virus?
2. How do you get a virus on your computer? How do they spread?
3. How much damage can they make?
4. What are some ways to predict or know if your computer has a virus?
5. How can they be prevented?
6. How can you remove or get rid of viruses?
What I learned...
- A computer virus is a program that is inserted or introduced into a computer, most times this happens without the owners consent.
- Computer viruses are usually spread through the internet, although they can also spread through disks, through a USB, or from machine to machine. Some ways they spread through the internet are, through illegal music or movie downloads, and clicking on ads, also through infected emails.
- Viruses can cause different types of damages to the computer. Some are not very bad and only make messages appear on the computer screen although others can make damage as big as wiping out the computers memory or data base.Some also make the computer slower. They can also damage your software, or send some of your information through the internet to other outside sources. People can use them to hack your computer.
- Some things that might happen to your computer if it has a virus are; it will be slower, it will freeze or crash suddenly, new programs will not install, internet access may be blocked, visual changes are changed unexpectedly, files will be deleted unexpectedly or there will be trouble opening them, false warnings of viruses or suspicious messages will appear on the screen, there will be trouble printing files etc. If these things happen your computer may have a virus.
- You can protect or prevent getting viruses by not opening suspicious emails, scanning your computer for viruses regularly, creating a strong password or pass phrase and never sharing it, backing up important data, install updates of the software you use, never responding to spams, reading all warnings carefully, never click ads on the internet, never use sharing programs to download things onto your computer, don not click OK or cancel on suspicious warnings, etc.
- You can do three things, first you can preform a system restore, although it can cause you to lose files or data it does not require you to download anything so it is safe. You can scan, be sure not to use many scanning programs at once because it can make it less effective, one good antivirus scanning program will be enough, yet none are 100% accurate, but they are good enough. You can clean install, it is 100% accurate, you can back up your files before doing this and that way you will not lose any.
Some useful links are...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/computer+virus?s=t
http://oregonstate.edu/helpdocs/book/export/html/172
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/3-ways-to-get-rid-of-viruses-spyware-and-malware/
How this relates to my life...
I own a computer and a lot of my information I keep in there. I would not want a virus to be inserted into my computer making it slower, or deleting my files. I also would not like it if other people had access to my files. It is very important for me to be informed about what I can do to prevent getting a computer virus, what they are, what they do, and how to get rid of them just in case. This will help me be sure that my files are safe and that my computer will not just suddenly crash.
Another question...
1. Are there different types of computer viruses?
2. What types are there?
3. What damage does each type do?
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