What is a Virus and what does it do?
A virus is a type of malicious software program called Malware but when it is executed, it replicates by reproducing itself like copying it's own source code or it can affect other programs on you computer by modifying them. Viruses can infect other programs which includes data files, or the "boot" sector of your harddrive. When it affects the computer your computer will warn you of a virus threat you might have. you can also get viruses throught downloads, email attachments, or removable media such as CDs, DVDs, or USB drives. Viruses attach themselves to legitimate executable files on a host computer that which can allow the virus to be loaded on you computer when the person opens the file. A virus generally will be active when it is loaded into the computer's memory, then it will start to spread producing even more threats. Your computer will still continue to work normally, but also spread the virus with it's code to other machines on the same network server your on, and can also spread to storage devices on the same network. Some viruses use polymorphic code to avoid being detected by antivirus software like Norton Antivirus, and more. It will modify their decryption modules so thatt the virus changes each time it infects a new host. Viruses are made by people and the people that make want your computer to die out from a virus so that you can't do anything on your computer. The viruses can corrup everything you have on your computer so be careful on your computer.
How do you get Computer Viruses?
You usually get computer viruses from searching the web and what you are clicking on. When you are on websites you will see advertisements which are the most common things on the internet. There are so many types like apply for a job, Translink, and more. But the ones you should be careful from are the bad advertisements like You are out 1 "millionth visitor", "you won 100 dollars. To claim your prize give us your credit card information", and "your computer has a virus call now or we will be forced to shut your computer down". you should be careful you might not know what kind of viruses can infect your computer.
How do you get rid of Viruses?
To avoid getting your computer more effect by Viruses you should entef safe mode to disconnect your computer from the internet so then you can clean your computer. It can help prevent the Virus (Malware) from spreading or leaking your private data. You should boot you computer into microsoft's safe mode if you think your computer is affect by Malware infection. When you turn your computer off and the next day you come on while safe mode is on can prevent teh malware from doing more bad things to your computer. It makes it more easy so that you can delete the files that are not actually running or active.
Next is Deleting temporary files:
This is what I use all the time on my computer and it is really usefull but I don't have safe mode on because I have had no threat of a virus. But what it does is it will scan junk files and doing this can speed up the virus scanning, free up disk space, and even get rid of some malware. To use the Disk Cleanup utility included with Windows 10 just type Disk Cleanup in the search after pressing start button or windows logo on your keyboard and select the tool that appears named Disk Cleanup.
Now there are Malware scanners that you can Download:
Now once you downloaded a maleware scanner make sure it is active because it is enough to remove most standard infections on your computer. If you have an antivirus program active, you should use a different scanner for this maleware check, because the program might have not detected the malware. No antivrius is perfect becuase one will eventually slip through it.
Next is Run a scan with Malwarebytes:
First you need to download it make sure safe mode is off. Once downloaded turn safemode back on before you start the scan. If you can't access the internet or you can't download Malwarebytes, go to a friends place and download on there computer and put it on your USB flash drive and then put it into your computer that is infected. Run the setup file and follow the wizard to install the program. Once the program starts keep the default scan option which is the Threat Scan. Once doing that is selected then click the start scan button. It should check for updates before it runs the scan, so just make sure that happens berfore you continue on. There is a custom scan on the scanner don't use it use quick scan it will only take 5-20 minutes therfore custom scan can take up as long of 30-60 minutes or more. while you scan if it disappers as you click start scan you might not be able to open it back up, but you propbaby have a rookit or other deep infections that can automatically kill scanners to prevent them from removing them. You can try some tricks to get around this problem, you might be better off reinstalling windows after backing up your files, you may need to expand your effort to beat the malware. Once the scan is complete Malwarebytes will show you results. If malware finds ingections, it'll show you what they are. Click the Revmove Selected button to get rid of the specified infections. Malwarebytes may also prompt you to restart your computer in order to complete the removal porcess, which you should propbably do.
Next is Fixing your web browser:
Malware infections can damage windows system files and other settings. One main malware trait is to modify your web browser's homepage to reinfect the computer, display advertisements, prevent browseing, and generally annoy you. But before going on the internet check your hompage and connection settings. To do this right click on your mouse, then hover to control panel then internet options. Find the Home Page settings in the General tab, and check to see that its not some site you know nothing about. For Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, go to the settings window of your browser to check your hompage setting.
Finally is Restarting your whole computer:
If you can't get the annoying maleware off your computer well it is probably time to wipe everything off the computer but before doing it make sure you put your important stuff that you need into your USB Falshdrive once done restart you computer. After your computer is wiped out start up your computer to set everything up again.
Next is Deleting temporary files:
This is what I use all the time on my computer and it is really usefull but I don't have safe mode on because I have had no threat of a virus. But what it does is it will scan junk files and doing this can speed up the virus scanning, free up disk space, and even get rid of some malware. To use the Disk Cleanup utility included with Windows 10 just type Disk Cleanup in the search after pressing start button or windows logo on your keyboard and select the tool that appears named Disk Cleanup.
Now there are Malware scanners that you can Download:
Now once you downloaded a maleware scanner make sure it is active because it is enough to remove most standard infections on your computer. If you have an antivirus program active, you should use a different scanner for this maleware check, because the program might have not detected the malware. No antivrius is perfect becuase one will eventually slip through it.
Next is Run a scan with Malwarebytes:
First you need to download it make sure safe mode is off. Once downloaded turn safemode back on before you start the scan. If you can't access the internet or you can't download Malwarebytes, go to a friends place and download on there computer and put it on your USB flash drive and then put it into your computer that is infected. Run the setup file and follow the wizard to install the program. Once the program starts keep the default scan option which is the Threat Scan. Once doing that is selected then click the start scan button. It should check for updates before it runs the scan, so just make sure that happens berfore you continue on. There is a custom scan on the scanner don't use it use quick scan it will only take 5-20 minutes therfore custom scan can take up as long of 30-60 minutes or more. while you scan if it disappers as you click start scan you might not be able to open it back up, but you propbaby have a rookit or other deep infections that can automatically kill scanners to prevent them from removing them. You can try some tricks to get around this problem, you might be better off reinstalling windows after backing up your files, you may need to expand your effort to beat the malware. Once the scan is complete Malwarebytes will show you results. If malware finds ingections, it'll show you what they are. Click the Revmove Selected button to get rid of the specified infections. Malwarebytes may also prompt you to restart your computer in order to complete the removal porcess, which you should propbably do.
Next is Fixing your web browser:
Malware infections can damage windows system files and other settings. One main malware trait is to modify your web browser's homepage to reinfect the computer, display advertisements, prevent browseing, and generally annoy you. But before going on the internet check your hompage and connection settings. To do this right click on your mouse, then hover to control panel then internet options. Find the Home Page settings in the General tab, and check to see that its not some site you know nothing about. For Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, go to the settings window of your browser to check your hompage setting.
Finally is Restarting your whole computer:
If you can't get the annoying maleware off your computer well it is probably time to wipe everything off the computer but before doing it make sure you put your important stuff that you need into your USB Falshdrive once done restart you computer. After your computer is wiped out start up your computer to set everything up again.
What are some famous viruses
- ILOVEYOU: The Love Letter virus also known as the ILOVEYOU virus, ILOVEYOU and Love letter, was a computer worm originating in the philippines, which began infectiong computers on May 5, 2000. It was spread by E-mail arriving with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and an attachment, "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs". If the attachment was opened, a visual basic script was executed, and the computer is now infected. This was mistaken as a simple text file when people open it. Once executed, the script then emails itself to everyone in the persons contact list, edited the windows registry to execute registry to execute the worm at startup, and replaced the data with many copyies of itself including JPEG images and Word Documents.
2. Code Red: The Code virus arrives at a server as a GET /default.ida request on TCP port 80. The request cotains a code that exploits a known buffer overflow in the indexing software in microsoft's internet server (IIS), allowing the worm to run code form within the IIS server. The worm runs entirely in memory, abd cannot be found on the disk. It is about 3569 bytes long. The worm will try to make 100 threads of copies of itself.
3. Melissa: it shows up in an attachment to an e-mail note with the subject line "Important Message form ]the name of someone[," and body text that reads "Here is that document you asked for...don't show anyone else ;-)". The attachment is often named LIST.DOC. If anyone clicks on or otherwise opens the attachment, the infecting file is read to your computer storage. The file itself originated in an Internet alt.sex newgroup and contains a list of passwords for various websites that require memberships. This file contains a Visual Basic Script that copies the virus-infected file into the normal.dot template file used by Word for custom setting and default macros. It also creates the entry in windows. the virus then creates an Outlook object using the Visual Basic code. The virus only works with Outlook. This virus was named after a stripper. An this virus was made by David L. Smith
4. Sasser: is a computer worm that affects computers running vulnerable versions of the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000. Sasser spreads by exploiting the system through a vulnerable port.
5. Zeus: Is a Trojan horse malware package that runs on versions of Microsoft Windows. While it can be used to carry out many malicious and criminal tasks, it is often used to steal banking information by man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing.
6. Conficker: It is a computer worm that can infect your computer and spread itself to other computers across a network automatically, without human interaction.
7. Stuxnet: Is a computer worm that targets industrial control systes that are used to monitor and control large scale industrail facilities like power plants, dams, waster processing systems and similar operations. It is the first computer virus to be able to wreak havoc in the physical world
8. Mydoom: it is a computer worm affecting Microsoft Windows. Spammers would send you junk e-mails if your computer is infected by the virus
9. CryptoLocker: is a virus that hijacks users documents and asks them to pay a ransom with a time limit to send the payment.
10. Flashback: This is referred to as the Flashback Trojan, is a Trojan horse affecting personal computer systems running Mac OS X.
11. The Klez Virus: it is a computer worm that propagates via e-mail. A number of variants of the worm exist. It infects Microsoft Windows systems, exploiting a vulnerability in Internet Explorer's Trident layout engine, used by both Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express to render HTML mail.
12. Nimda: It is a computer virus that caused traffic slowdowns as it ripped across the Internet, spreading through different methods, infecting computers containing Microsoft's Web server, Internet information Server (IIS), and computer users who opened an e-mail attachment.
13. SQL Slammer/S: It is a virus that caused a denial of service on some Internet hots and dramatically slowed down Internet traffic. It spread rapidly, infecting most of its 75000 victims within 10 minutes.
14. Netsky: this is a prolific family of computer worms which affect Microsoft Windows operating systems. This worm was sent out as an e-mail, enticing people to open an attachment.Once opened it will scan for e-mail addresses and e-mail itself to all addresses found.
15. Storm Worm: It is a backdoor Trojan horse that affects computers using Microsoft operating systems.
Conclusion
You should be careful on what you look up on the internet because you never know what kind of bad viruses are on websites. Always have a program to protect your computer.