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PC911 > How-To > Safe Computing > Virus Protection
Protecting against viruses
Protect yourself, your company, and your friends against viruses!
Just like a human being can catch a virus, from relatively harmless ones such as a flu to fatal ones such as HIV, your computer is just as vulnerable to a virus. Unfortunately, there are some elements out there that take pleasure in destruction and wreaking havoc and making other people's lives miserable. No, I am not talking about Darth Maul, I am referring to virus programmers.
A virus is a malicious piece of code written and designed to enter your PC without your permission and unnoticed. It will then replicate itself and/or possibly cause serious damage to your files and your PC. A virus can come in many forms but they usually come attached to a file, e.g. hidden in Word macros or embedded in executable files or attached to an e-mail, or in the boot sector of a disk.
Once the infected file or disk is introduced to your system, the virus can spread by attaching itself to files on your drives, or by sending infected e-mails to people in your address book. The Internet is a great environment for a virus to spread as downloading and e-mailing and exchanging files and information is common practice. If programmed to do so, the virus will not only spread but also cause damage to your system, such as, but not limited to, deleting files, deleting hard drive boot records resulting in an unbootable system, or erasing CMOS information.
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