A virus is a type of malware — a harmful program created by hackers that can infect your computer or device in multiple ways. They can be incredibly difficult to get rid of and they can spread from device to device. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect your devices and we have some tips about how to remove a virus. First, learn how to identify whether your device is infected.
How does a computer virus work? A virus is written by programmers to attach, overwrite, or otherwise replace another program on your computer in order to reproduce itself without your knowledge.
A virus can cause a number of problems on your infected device. It may quickly use all your computer's available memory — slowing down your system or bringing it to a halt. Viruses can damage data, destroy files, format hard drives, or make disks unreadable. A virus can enter your computer as an email attachment, in a downloaded file, or hidden on a zip drive or CD. It's usually not obvious that a virus is present on a website, in an email or elsewhere.
If you are noticing any of these problems on your device, you may have a virus:
There are many different types of computer viruses out there and each of them affect your machine differently. Below are a few of the different types of computer viruses that may infect your computer.
There are some precautions you can take to keep your devices safe:
There are some precautions you can take to keep your devices safe. If you think your device is infected, your first step is to run a complete scan using your anti-virus program.
If your anti-virus program is unable to remove the virus, these are your next steps:
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