Types of Computer Virus

By knowing various types of computer virus, will help you take preventive measures as soon as possible thus stopping computer viruses to escalate further and damage your computer. There are basically three types of computer virus:

Macro viruses:

This virus is the most popular among all the viruses, and most of the computers are affected by this virus. What is Macro Virus? As the name suggests it infects the applications that uses some kind of internal macro programming languages. Microsoft Word or Excel is the prime examples of applications that uses macro programming language. Macro virus does not infect the application, but infects the files based on those macro programming languages. Macro Virus is spread through disks, Internet, or through an e-mail attachment. A well-known example of Macro virus is Melissa virus that was released on March, 1999 through email attachment.

Boot sector viruses:

As the name suggest, boot sector virus infects the boot sector of ones computer's hard disks, floppy disk and probably all the other bootable media like cds, usb etc… leaving ones computer unbootable or hard disks wiped out.

Boot sector virus, spreads through the boot sector of any other storage device which has bootable capability. For example, if a computer is booted, with infected bootable cd, then what will eventually happen is that the boot sector virus will infect not only that computer's hard disks, but will also wait for an appropriate time to write themselves to more floppy disks or storage devices. Michaelangelo, Junkie Virus, and Ohio viruses are examples of this macro virus.

File infecting viruses

This type of viruses attaches itself to an executable program file by adding its own programming code to executable file that it want to infect. Then, when that infected file is run, the virus attaches itself to other executable files thus replicating itself. Files infected by this type of virus usually have a .COM, .EXE, or .SYS extension.

In order to prevent virus spreading on your computer, read virus prevention guide.

Securing your computer is just one part of the whole security and safety process. It all starts by acquiring right knowledge on various internet threats, securing your identity while surfing, and performing online shopping and online banking safely. Last, but not least regulate internet by having internet filter.

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