Computer Viruses - The Basics

In its simplest terms a virus is a disruptive computer code period!

A computer virus almost always repeats itself and spreads by attaching itself to other files. Viruses can be made to host a number of harmful things on any computer from disrupting files to crashing networks. It can even be laying dormant, without you knowing it's there and then attack when least expect it, like right in the middle of downloading a large file or typing a long report.

It can even be made to open at a certain date, sitting like a timebomb until it's time arrives. As you can see it can be annoying at the very least.

I do not want go into all the different types of viruses here because there are so many and more are being made everyday in some dank basement by the Dark Lord.

However, since so many viruses came from unknowingly opening e-mails I would like to mention some basics here:

Never open e-mail attachments unless you know for sure who it's from and that it's safe. Some mail programs will even ask if you trust the attachment and if you