If you already know everything there is to know about protecting yourself against viruses, Trojans, worms, and other internet nasties, feel free to skip this one. But if you’ve ever found yourself wondering why your computer is running so slowly, if you’ve ever accidentally opened an email for erectile dysfunction pills, you’ll definitely want to keep reading.
Viruses first began way back before there was any such thing as home computers. The first known computer virus was called simply THE CREEPER. The virus itself was relatively benign, if a little annoying. It would simply pop up a message on your monitor announcing “I’M THE CREEPER, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN”.
The first virus killer wasn’t long to follow, THE REAPER, designed specifically to kill THE CREEPER.
Today, viruses are not merely practical jokes, as THE CREEPER was. Today, viruses are designed with one goal in mind: Get the virus maker some money. No matter what the virus does to your computer, the end goal is always the same.
Viruses are designed to steal. Either they steal your credit card information and so on, giving it to some huckster who hopes to make a fast buck off of you, or they steal your personal information and send it to spammers and other con men.
What you want to do to protect yourself is just download some virus protection software, right away. Avast, Avira AntiVir, or AVGFree are all good, strong, powerful, easy to use antivirus programs, and they’re all free. You can go ahead and shop around for a more powerful program later, but for now, your first priority is just making sure you’re protected. Download one of those programs and scan your computer.
Virus protection software works must like your immune system. Before your immune system can kill a virus, it has to have a sample of the virus so that it can identify and destroy it. The same goes for antivirus software. Antivirus software works by way of accessing a vast database of known viruses. This way it can easily identify any viruses hiding out in your computer files, and delete it, quickly.
Avira is great on this front, as it receives updates at least once a day, ensuring that, even if some virus maker just created their malevolent piece of code today, Avira will have it taken care of by the end of the afternoon. Avast is also good on this front, though for full protection, you might need something like McAfee or Barracuda to really take care of business.
