Computer users are certainly very wary and worried about a virus attack on their computer. The risk of lost data or the computer's operating system becoming chaotic is very looming if the computer is really infected. Therefore, the latest computer antivirus should be installed and scanned regularly.
Viruses are a serious threat to computers that can spread through the internet and flash disks when data exchange activities are carried out. The consequences of computer viruses directly damage software and indirectly affect hardware.
Viruses that proliferate in computers cause the process load on certain hardware to become heavier and potentially cause damage.
Viruses according to how they work are divided into several kinds, namely:
- Worm is a virus that reproduces itself in the data storage media in the computer (hard disk) so that it fills the empty space in the data storage media.
- Trojan is a virus that retrieves data from the attacked computer and then sends it to the trojan maker.
- Backdoor looks like computer files that are not infected but are at risk of taking data from the computer.
- Rogue is a fake computer antivirus that deceives computer users by providing information about a virus attack. Rogue can open computer security holes so that other viruses can easily enter.
- Rootkits work on a computer like a normal computer system.
- Spyware monitors the performance of computers affected by computer virus infections.
- Polymorphic viruses can change at any time so that they are not recognized by the installed computer anti-virus.
- Metamorphic viruses trick computer anti-virus by changing the encoding independently.
- Cellular phone virus is a virus that attacks cell phones, causing damage to the phone, data being stolen from the cellphone, and consuming cellphone users' credit.
Anti Virus Working Principle
At this time computer anti virus can be obtained for free and paid. The service features provided are certainly of higher quality and complete if you buy from the manufacturer (vendor).
But if you don't have enough money to get the paid version then the wise choice is to use free antivirus like AVG, SMADAV, and PCMAV. With all its limitations, the quality of free anti-virus is also not too far from paid antivirus.
Anti-virus computers work on the principle of virus recognition through virus databases in search of the presence of viruses. The database generates virus codes which are categorized by anti-virus vendors. To get it can be downloaded for free or subscribed from an antivirus vendor.
Another principle that is run by computer anti-virus to identify viruses is done by looking at how the virus acts. Several policies are implemented to determine the presence of viruses in a software.
Then the anti-virus stops the running software process to authorize the administrator to take further action.
Tips for Effectively Removing Viruses
In general, viruses attack computers with Windows-based operating systems, especially Windows XP. To get rid of the virus, the most common step is to remove it from another computer and use another operating system.
The first method can be briefly described as follows:
- Remove the infected data storage media from the computer.
- Install a computer that is not infected and has the latest anti-virus with the ability to recognize and remove viruses optimally.
- Run a full scan process to find the virus and then remove it.
- When finished plug it back into the original computer and check it once for virus symptoms.
The second alternative solution to overcome computer viruses with the help of other operating systems. This is done if the data storage media cannot be removed like on a laptop. So what must be done is to install two operating systems on the computer and then run a clean operating system from viruses.
A full scan is carried out into the contents of the data storage media and removes viruses that have been traced. Although the traces of the virus still remain, they do not pose any harm, only a little annoying through the computer system error messages.
Anti-virus computer is not the main weapon against the ferocity of the virus which is getting more and more variants. Prevention efforts are more important by updating the antivirus regularly and always scanning storage media such as flash drives, floppy disks, and CDs or DVDs is a wise step.
Immediately after updating the virus identification data, a scan of the entire computer should be carried out about once a week.