Computer viruses earned their name because, like a human cold, they infect a computer system and cause all sorts of mischief.
While a computer system doesn’t experience illness like a person, it shows symptoms when under the weather.
Imagine your computer system as a superhero, and these viruses are the sneaky villains trying to bring it down.
Much like health professionals diagnose your sickness by observing symptoms, IT professionals play the role of digital doctors.
They can diagnose what’s ailing your computer system by observing its behavior and performance.
Now, let’s rewind to the ’70s when computer viruses made their debut. It’s like discovering the origin story of a legendary superhero.
A 15-year-old computer whiz created the first known computer virus, setting the stage for the digital battles to come.
Here’s a fun fact: not all digital troublemakers are viruses. While many people use “computer virus” as a catch-all term, it’s a specific type of computer malware.
We’ve delved into the world of computer malware in our previous discussions, unveiling the various types and their unique powers.
When a computer catches a virus, it’s not just a metaphorical illness. There are real symptoms! Like a superhero showing signs of weakness, an infected computer may act strangely—slowing down, deleting files, or behaving unpredictably. It’s like the computer’s way of signaling for help.
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Signs Of A Virus Infected Computer
- The computer becomes slow.
- You realize that some files are missing.
- Storage sometimes goes low.
- Crashes
- Seeing unknown programs
- Security software gets disabled.
- The browser pops up constantly.
- Network activity increases.
There are many computer viruses, and each of them is created to person a specific malicious activity on its victims.
Many people are conversant with the list of things and habits that they have to do to steer clear of an illness or infection.
It is the same way with computer systems. Precautions have to be taken to keep them protected from computer viruses and malware.
To know the kind of protection to take to protect your computer from viruses and malware, you need to understand how the various types of viruses behave.
Below are some ways that the different types of viruses behave when they affect your computer system.
This will help you to know immediately when your computer is suffering from a virus.
Most Common Types Of Computer Viruses
Multipartite Virus
This is the kind of computer virus that can infect the entire computer system. They can spread without any action from the computer user and do so through folders and programs. This makes them a hazardous type of virus.
Resident Virus
This kind of virus affects the RAM 0f the computer system and messes around with the operations of your computer.
This type of virus can even attach itself to your antivirus software, thereby making them hard to remove as they control the means used to remove them.
Direct Action
This kind of computer virus sets its sights on a specific target to infect. It usually targets .exe files by replicating themselves and then infecting the files.
However, it is one of the most straightforward viruses to detect when it infects your computer system, which means that you can easily remove it from your computer once it has been detected.
Overwrite Virus
This virus does precisely as its name suggests. Its nature is to overwrite an existing file so that it can infect it.
It can overwrite things such as folders, programs, and even files.
Browser Hacker
This kind of virus typically infects your internet browser so that it can redirect you to your search inquiries and send you malicious websites instead of the actual side you intended to go to.
Web Scripting Virus
They hide in the links of code, images, ads, videos, and website code. It can infect a system when the computer user downloads software files and documents from the internet with the virus lurking in it.
It can also infect a system when the user visits a malicious website.
Network Virus
They are the kind that infect the system by traveling through network connections and then replicating themselves with the aid of shared resources.
Boot Sector Virus
This virus will hide on a USB drive or an email attachment and can infect the computer system’s boot record, allowing it to damage the computer system.
File Infector
This virus targets executable files to slow down the computer system and damage the system.
All these are some of the types of computer viruses and their nature of destruction.
Most of these can be removed with antivirus software, although not all will fall to the antivirus software.
Knowing these will help you a great deal in identifying when your computer has a virus and knowing how to deal with it due to the nature of the virus or the behavior of your computer also be careful when using your phone when it comes to browsing and downloading things as your mobile phone too can be infected with malware.
