Virus Definitions

All About Virus Definitions

What Can a Virus Do?

Much like real viruses in human beings, computer viruses are designed to infiltrate and attack computers where they will feel it most. Viruses jump from computer to computer via a network connection, and most can infiltrate a computer’s hard drive without the computer user’s knowledge. The Internet and email access has made the spread of computer viruses much more prevalent, however viruses can also be spread through diskettes or CD’s.

There are many different types of viruses; some of the more damaging ones can infect entire programs within a computer, and others infiltrate individual programs such as Microsoft Word. The most common, and least dangerous type of virus is called a macro virus. Viruses can have various effects on a computer, including slowing production speed, moving or erasing files, or deleting entire portions of the hard drive.

What are Virus Definitions?

With any given number of viruses swimming out there in cyber space, computer-savvy consumers are buying programs that will protect their hard-drives from being corrupted. There are many ways to prevent your computer from being infiltrated by a virus, including not opening email attachments from unknown sources and not allowing disks in your computer if they have been in other computers. These are good preventative measures, however, the most important step to take in protecting your computer is the purchase of anti-virus software.

A key feature of anti-virus software programs is that they contain virus definitions. Virus definitions are the portion of the anti-virus software that checks all programs on a computer to make sure that none of them are a virus. The anti-virus software will then go through and eliminate viruses from a computer system. Virus definitions are a sort of profile of what a specific virus is like. The software searches the computer for something that matches the profile, and if it does, they are able to remove it.

Virus definitions and software must be updated often to catch ever-evolving viruses. Although it may take a few moments of each day to allow anti-virus software to check a computer, it is well worth it to identify and remove viruses before they cause any lasting damage. More Protection From Viruses

Aside from virus-protection software, there are a few other ways a computer can be protected from viruses. It is advised to not answer emails that come from unknown users. Not all viruses sent through emails come with a suspicious subject line. Some of the most popular email-spread viruses have had subject lines that read Melissa or I Love You. These virus hoaxes have been known to cause significant damage to entire network systems in just a matter of hours. This is why it is advised to never open an email sent from an unknown source. Along those same lines, it is important that all programs downloaded from the Internet come from known sources as well.