What is computer virus?

For many decades, the concept of virus referred to the organism made up of nucleic acids and proteins that has the ability to develop its reproduction inside certain cells. Currently this meaning is still valid, although another meaning has been added to the term.

Today, harmful software is called a virus, which, once installed on a computer (computer), can destroy stored data. These viruses are specifically known as computer viruses. A computer virus falls under the category of malware: malicious software. Its purpose is to affect the operation of the machine without prior notice or user authorization. That’s why these programs are “cloaked” behind a harmless appearance: they can be offered as games, movies or music, for example, but they are actually viruses.

In addition to all this, we cannot ignore the fact that it is important to establish that computer viruses arrive through different routes. However, the infections they generate usually occur through social networks, different devices such as pen drives that become infected, download pages, attachments in emails that were not requested… In addition to all this, we cannot forget that computer viruses are They can be classified into different groups, among which the following stand out:

-Worms, which reproduce automatically and what they do is delete the information that we have in RAM memory.

-The Trojan horse, which is used to refer to a virus that is confused with a virus considered legal, but when it is executed, it takes total control of the device.

– Mutant viruses that, as their name suggests, are the ones that transform, change, so that they cannot be detected by the antivirus that is installed. Suppose a person downloads a file from an Internet site believing it to be a photo-editing application. However, the file in question is a computer virus. Thus, when the user executes the file, the virus code is lodged in the computer’s RAM memory. After that, the computer virus controls the essential functions of the operating system, infects other executable files and replicates itself on the hard drive (hard drive). Computer viruses can delete information, saturate a network, display annoying banners, or shut down your computer, among other possibilities. To protect a computer from infections and remove viruses, there are so-called antivirus programs, which are programs created especially to combat malicious software. To ensure that our computer, tablet or similar device is protected against computer viruses, it is essential to comply with a series of basic measures. Among them is both installing the aforementioned antivirus and doing the same with a firewall and even resorting to a little common sense. With the latter, it means not downloading anything that comes from unknown emails, not entering web pages that we believe may cause an “infection”,…

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