Virus: What manner of species is this ?

If you have been following the challenges that I am facing in my new avatar of ‘the queen of the home office’, I am sure that you would have guessed that my next dilemma is going to be all about the ‘V’ word. Really, it is the absolutely most foul and dirty word associated with the computing world. ‘Virus’; there I said it! One should avail virus support to get rid of computer virus.Virus, Virus, Virus, easier to say the more I repeat it; but what is it, this Trojan Horse, this slayer of invincible wire and circuit boards? The genesis of the term virus is of course from the medical usage of the term virus as are its intrinsic properties. Here (for the space of this article) we shall separate from its medical brother and focus on what really a computing virus is all about and the potential damage it can do to your systems and networks. Needless to say a computing virus can be just as debilitating to the health of your computer as a medical virus can be to your personal health. A computer virus is man made and is essentially computer code written to damage your operating system. It comes into the system without your knowledge and attaches itself to software already in your system. A virus is mostly transmitted via e-mail and in most cases the virus is transmitted unwittingly. Hence the big sign on top of my computer virus that my son has put up ‘DO NOT OPEN ANY EMAILS THAT ARE NOT FAMILIAR AND HAVE ATACHMENTS THAT READ….blah blah blah…There are many types of computer virus, infact there is a new one born every minute. A virus can corrupt all your files, it can shut your system down completely, virus can cause all your files to duplicate, send out e-mails to all the people listed in your contacts without your knowledge. From what I have read on the Internet, a virus can pretty much to do anything to your system.  In earlier article on Spyware, I spoke about how it is better to be proactive; here again the same applies with computer virus. Once the virus is in your system then it’s an uphill task to get rid of the virus but prevention – now that’s like beating the virus even before its begun to play. Get real…after all for us home office users, our PC’s house everything! I mean, my PC has everything from household accounts to my investment, my precious writings and my baby’s pictures. It’s like having your life is one box. Would you allow anybody, forget a computer virus to attack that? No, then get protection from computer virus today. First and foremost, consider a firewall, this insulates you from the outside world and protects you from virus attacks. This software is also available free of cost on the Internet.  Next, we need to have anti-virus software in place. Now, the thing about anti- virus software is that it needs to install anti-virus updates on a regular basis in order for your protection to be up to date. Remember…a new virus is created very minute. Further, you could consider changing email and web client’s to ones that are lesser prone to virus attacks. My point therefore is not too scare you but actually to scare the living daylights out of you! Computer virus can cause untold damage, rob you of precious data, information and memories. Proactive action really is all that is required of you. Good quality protection software, i.e. anti-virus software is available free of cost on the Internet. If making these choices is difficult for you as it was for me, remote and phone support is available today at the touch of a button, for a small fee, 24/7.