What is Virus (Introduction)

A computer virus is a program, script, or macro designed to cause damage, steal personal
information, modify data, send e-mail, display messages, or some combination of these actions.
When the virus is executed, it spreads by copying itself into or over data files, programs, boot
sector of a computer's hard drive, or potentially anything else writable. Virus writers use detailed
knowledge of security vulnerabilities to gain access to a host's computer.

A brief history of computer virus

In 1949, the inventor of computer, John Von Neumann gave lectures about the Theory and
Organization of Complicated Automata and the theory of self reproducing automata was
published in 1966 based on the theory.
In 1971, to do an experimental self-replicating program and to test Vo Neumanns theory, Bob
Thomas developed the creeper that accessed through ARPANET (The Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network) and copied to remote host systems with TENEX operating system.
The message that was displayed by the creeper is Im the creeper, catch me if you can! Later,
another program named Reaper was created to delete the creeper.
The first computer virus known as the Elk Cloner was written by Rich Skrenta in 1982 who was
a 15-year old high school student at the time. The Elk Cloner virus spread to other computers by
monitoring the floppy drive and copying itself to any floppy diskette that was inserted into the
computer. Once a floppy was infected it would infect all other computers that used the disk was.
A computer that was infected would display a short poem on every 50th boot.

Malware Vs Virus
Virus is a type of malware. Malware is software written specifically to harm and infect
the host system. Malware includes viruses along with other types of software such as trojan
horses, worms, spyware, and adware. Advanced malware such as ransomware are used to
commit financial fraud and extort money from computer users.
There are many types of malware that are like virus. They are

Adware: Adware is also known as advertising-supported software. It is software which

renders advertisements for the purpose of generating revenue for its author. The advertisements
are published on the screen presented to the user at the time of installation. Adware is
programmed to examine which Internet sites, the user visits frequently and to present and feature
related advertisements. Not all adware has malicious intent, but it becomes a problem anyway
because it harms computer performance and can be annoying.

Spyware: This type of malicious software, spies on you, tracks your internet activities. It helps
the hacker in gathering information about the victims system, without the consent of the victim.
This spywares presence is typically hidden from the host and it is very difficult to detect. Some
spyware like keyloggers may be installed intentionally in a organization to monitor activities of
employees.

Worms: This type of malware will replicate itself and destroys information and files saved on
the host PC. It works to eat up all the system operating files and data files on a drive.

Trojan: Trojans are a type of virus that are designed to make a user think they are a safe
program and run them. They may be programmed to steal personal and financial information,
and later take over the resources of the host computers system files. In large systems it may
attempt to make a host system or network resource unavailable to those attempting to reach it.
Example: you business network becoming unavailable.

Ransomware: Ransomware is an advanced type of malware that restricts access to the

computer system until the user pays a fee. Your screen might show a pop up warning that your
have been locked out of your computer and that you can access only after paying the cyber
criminal. The cyber criminal demands a ransom to be paid in order for the restriction to be
removed. The infamous Cryptolocker is one type of ransomware.

Scareware: Fake antivirus programs, which are often referred to as "scareware," is the arguably
most irritating leg of the malware stool. With scareware, a warning pops up on the computer
screen telling that the computer is infected and attempts to sell the user a program to disinfect the
program. This is the ultimate no-win situation.

Who creates virus

In the past the majority of viruses and Trojans were created by students who had just mastered a
programming language and wanted to try it out, but failed to find a better platform for their
skills. Up to present time writers such viruses were seeking only one thing to raise self-esteem.
Fortunately, a large part of such viruses have not been distributed (by their authors) and shortly
viruses died away together with the storage disks or authors of viruses sent them only to antivirus companies with a note that the virus would not be further transferred.

The second group viruses-writers also includes young people (often students), who have not
yet fully mastered the art of programming. Inferiority complex is the only reason prompting
them to write viruses, which is compensated by computer hooliganism. Such craftsmen often
produce primitive viruses with numerous mistakes (the so-called student viruses). Life of such
virus-writers has become much simpler with the development of Internet and emergence of
numerous websites training how to write a computer virus. Web-resources of this kind give
detailed recommendations on how to intrude into the system, conceal from anti-virus programs
and offer ways of further distribution of a virus. Often ready original texts are provided, which
require only minimal author changes and compilation as recommended.

When older and more experienced, many virus-writers fall into the third and most dangerous
group, creating professional viruses and lets them out to the world. These elaborate and smoothly
running programs are created by professionals, not infrequently very talented programmers.
These viruses often intrude into data system domains in very unusual ways, use mistakes of
security systems of operating environments, social engineering and other tricks.

Antivirus
Anti-virus software is a program or set of programs that are designed to prevent, search for,
detect, and remove software viruses, and other malicious software like worms, trojans, adware,
and more.

These tools are critical for users to have installed and up-to-date because a computer without
anti-virus software installed will be infected within minutes of connecting to the internet. The
bombardment is constant, with anti-virus companies update their detection tools constantly to
deal with the more than 60,000 new pieces of malware created daily.
There are several different companies that build and offer anti-virus software and what each
offers can vary but all perform some basic functions:

Scan specific files or directories for any malware or known malicious patterns

Allow you to schedule scans to automatically run for you

Allow you to initiate a scan of a specific file or of your computer, or of a CD or flash

drive at any time.

Remove any malicious code detected sometimes you will be notified of an infection and
asked if you want to clean the file, other programs will automatically do this behind the
scenes.

Show you the health of your computer

Always be sure you have the best, up-to-date security software installed to protect your
computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Removing a virus or malware

Ways without Antivirus
1.
2.
3.
4.

Block the Virus from the Startup List

Start Task Manager and End Virus-Related Processes
Seek and Destroy That Malicious Software: Delete Its Files
Seek and Destroy Some More: Remove Registry Keys

Best 2016 antivirus

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Avast
AVG
Avira
Bitdefender
F-Secure
Kaspersky

7. Norton
8. Panda
9. Trend Micro
10. Webroot

How to Avoid Virus

1: Install quality antivirus

Many computer users believe free antivirus applications, such as those included with an Internet
service provider's bundled service offering, are sufficient to protect a computer from virus or
spyware infection. However, such free anti-malware programs typically don't provide adequate
protection from the ever-growing list of threats.

Instead, all Windows users should install professional, business-grade antivirus software on their
PCs. Pro-grade antivirus programs update more frequently throughout the day (thereby providing
timely protection against fast-emerging vulnerabilities), protect against a wider range of threats
(such as rootkits), and enable additional protective features (such as custom scans).
2: Install real-time anti-spyware protection

Many computer users mistakenly believe that a single antivirus program with integrated spyware
protection provides sufficient safeguards from adware and spyware. Others think free antispyware applications, combined with an antivirus utility, deliver capable protection from the
skyrocketing number of spyware threats.

Unfortunately, that's just not the case. Most free anti-spyware programs do not provide real-time,
or active, protection from adware, Trojan, and other spyware infections. While many free
programs can detect spyware threats once they've infected a system, typically professional (or
fully paid and licensed) anti-spyware programs are required to prevent infections and fully
remove those infections already present.

3: Keep anti-malware applications current

Antivirus and anti-spyware programs require regular signature and database updates. Without
these critical updates, anti-malware programs are unable to protect PCs from the latest threats.

In early 2009, antivirus provider AVG released statistics revealing that a lot of serious computer
threats are secretive and fast-moving. Many of these infections are short-lived, but they're
estimated to infect as many as 100,000 to 300,000 new Web sites a day.

Computer users must keep their antivirus and anti-spyware applications up to date. All Windows
users must take measures to prevent license expiration, thereby ensuring that their anti-malware
programs stay current and continue providing protection against the most recent threats. Those
threats now spread with alarming speed, thanks to the popularity of such social media sites as
Twitter, Facebook, and My Space.
4: Perform daily scans

Occasionally, virus and spyware threats escape a system's active protective engines and infect a
system. The sheer number and volume of potential and new threats make it inevitable that
particularly inventive infections will outsmart security software. In other cases, users may
inadvertently instruct anti-malware software to allow a virus or spyware program to run.

Regardless of the infection source, enabling complete, daily scans of a system's entire hard drive
adds another layer of protection. These daily scans can be invaluable in detecting, isolating, and
removing infections that initially escape security software's attention.
5: Disable autorun

Many viruses work by attaching themselves to a drive and automatically installing themselves on
any other media connected to the system. As a result, connecting any network drives, external
hard disks, or even thumb drives to a system can result in the automatic propagation of such
threats.

Computer users can disable the Windows autorun feature by following Microsoft's
recommendations, which differ by operating system. Microsoft Knowledge Base articles 967715
and 967940 are frequently referenced for this purpose.
6: Disable image previews in Outlook

Simply receiving an infected Outlook e-mail message, one in which graphics code is used to
enable the virus' execution, can result in a virus infection. Prevent against automatic infection by
disabling image previews in Outlook.

By default, newer versions of Microsoft Outlook do not automatically display images. But if you
or another user has changed the default security settings, you can switch them back (using
Outlook 2007) by going to Tools | Trust Center, highlighting the Automatic Download option,
and selecting Don't Download Pictures Automatically In HTML E-Mail Messages Or RSS.
7: Don't click on email links or attachments

It's a mantra most every Windows user has heard repeatedly: Don't click on email links or
attachments. Yet users frequently fail to heed the warning.

Whether distracted, trustful of friends or colleagues they know, or simply fooled by a crafty
email message, many users forget to be wary of links and attachments included within email
messages, regardless of the source. Simply clicking on an email link or attachment can, within
minutes, corrupt Windows, infect other machines, and destroy critical data.

Users should never click on email attachments without at least first scanning them for viruses
using a business-class anti-malware application. As for clicking on links, users should access
Web sites by opening a browser and manually navigating to the sites in question.
8: Surf smart

Many business-class anti-malware applications include browser plug-ins that help protect against
drive-by infections, phishing attacks (in which pages purport to serve one function when in fact
they try to steal personal, financial, or other sensitive information), and similar exploits. Still

others provide "link protection," in which Web links are checked against databases of known-bad
pages.

Whenever possible, these preventive features should be deployed and enabled. Unless the plugins interfere with normal Web browsing, users should leave them enabled. The same is true for
automatic pop-up blockers, such as are included in Internet Explorer 8, Google's toolbar, and
other popular browser toolbars.

Regardless, users should never enter user account, personal, financial, or other sensitive
information on any Web page at which they haven't manually arrived. They should instead open
a Web browser, enter the address of the page they need to reach, and enter their information that
way, instead of clicking on a hyperlink and assuming the link has directed them to the proper
URL. Hyperlinks contained within an e-mail message often redirect users to fraudulent, fake, or
unauthorized Web sites. By entering Web addresses manually, users can help ensure that they
arrive at the actual page they intend.

But even manual entry isn't foolproof. Hence the justification for step 10: Deploy DNS
protection. More on that in a moment.
9: Use a hardware-based firewall

Technology professionals and others argue the benefits of software- versus hardware-based
firewalls. Often, users encounter trouble trying to share printers, access network resources, and
perform other tasks when deploying third-party software-based firewalls. As a result, I've seen
many cases where firewalls have simply been disabled altogether.

But a reliable firewall is indispensable, as it protects computers from a wide variety of exploits,
malicious network traffic, viruses, worms, and other vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, by itself, the
software-based firewall included with Windows isn't sufficient to protect systems from the
myriad robotic attacks affecting all Internet-connected systems. For this reason, all PCs
connected to the Internet should be secured behind a capable hardware-based firewall.
10: Deploy DNS protection

Internet access introduces a wide variety of security risks. Among the most disconcerting may be
drive-by infections, in which users only need to visit a compromised Web page to infect their
own PCs (and potentially begin infecting those of customers, colleagues, and other staff).

Another worry is Web sites that distribute infected programs, applications, and Trojan files. Still
another threat exists in the form of poisoned DNS attacks, whereby a compromised DNS server
directs you to an unauthorized Web server. These compromised DNS servers are typically your
ISP's systems, which usually translate friendly URLs such as yahoo.com to numeric IP addresses
like 69.147.114.224.

Users can protect themselves from all these threats by changing the way their computers process
DNS services. While a computer professional may be required to implement the switch,
OpenDNS offers free DNS services to protect users against common phishing, spyware, and
other Web-based hazards.