I was skeptic when I read that even social media groups are
likely to spread computer viruses. As an avid internet marketers, I have been
associated with more than 400 FB groups and 300 Google plus communities. My
computer was never infected because of my involvement with them.
So, who actually spreads computer viruses and malware? It is
difficult to assimilate the reports that they are people who deliberately sabotage
computers with viruses.
What Computer Viruses
Really Are
You can call any malicious computer program a virus. In
reality, there are at least seven distinct types of malicious software, or
malware, commonly affecting computers today. The most common of these are
worms, Trojans, and spyware.
So, what's the difference between computer viruses and the
other types of malware? The difference is that computer viruses are just about
the only ones that regularly shut down computers and cause other obvious
damage. The most common of the other kinds of malware--worms, Trojans, and
spyware--are usually only detectable with a special scan.
The Real Danger of Computer Viruses
If the other types of malware are so unobtrusive that they
can only be detected with a special scan, then what's to worry about? For
starters, these programs are called malicious for a reason: they are designed
to cause some kind of damage, if not to your computer, then to someone else's.
Worms are most famously used to damage, destroy, or disrupt
other computer networks than the one on which the host computer is located. For
instance, worms have been used by website owners to shut down rival websites by
sending overwhelming numbers of requests to the computer that hosts that
website.
Worms have also been used to send out viruses to other computers,
often without infecting the host machine--after all, what would it benefit the
worm to shut down its host computer?
Trojans, in turn, are often used to insert worms and other
malware on your computer, even if the Trojan itself does no damage.
But even if you don't care what happens to anyone else, you
should still be concerned about one kind of malware: spyware, a kind of malware
that, true to its name, collects data from your computer and sends it back to a
remote host.
Most spyware is only interested in monitoring your internet
usage so it can tell other programs, called adware, what advertising to popup
on your computer. However, there are criminal spyware programs that steal
financial data, or perform a thorough identity theft. Don't think you have
personal or financial data on your computer?
Some spyware programs contain a
keylogger, which is a program that copies whatever you type, usually in order
to snatch passwords. Even if you keep no financial information on your
computer, if you ever buy anything over the web, the keylogger would allow its
owner to buy stuff using the same information you typed in to buy stuff
yourself.
I used to warnings from my web host that my site is infected
with malware but when scanned I found them to be really harmless though I would
immediately delete them and get back my site up and running in a few hours.
