Types of Virus
There are many different types of harmful virus on the internet and many of them can take an unprotected computer down in seconds. They range in purpose from simple destruction to infection and reproduction. Even though protection software continues to advance the people that continue to develop viruses are just as resourceful and clever. This means that the arms race between removal software and infection is going to be a long drawn out affair.
Of the many types of harmful virus on the internet you rarely see the common virus anymore. This could be likened to the common cold that humans deal with and is simply out to destroy data. Fortunately firewalls and virus removers have long since immunized and protected computers from this basic threat so you rarely see it anymore. The only places you might still find it are in the shadier corners of the internet or automatic pop ups.
While this is good news the bad news is that it has many newer and deadlier cousins. Aside from the standard run of the mill virus you have the backdoor virus, the worm class of virus, and newer viruses that share elements with many other forms of malicious software. The back door virus or Trojan Horse virus is meant to get inside your computer without you noticing.
This is one of the more dangerous types of harmful virus on the internet as it will often masquerade as something else and trick you into downloading it. No matter how good your protection software is it won’t stop you from downloading something intentionally. This means that if you tell it to allow the download from the strange pop up in a foreign language then it will do so without question.
Once inside many of these types of harmful virus will begin shutting down a computers defenses and let other parasites in. Just like the name implies it was based of the Trojan Horse in ancient history. This virus is slowly going the way of the common virus and removal and protection software companies are able to effectively block it with their products now.
The worm type of virus on the other hand is not going away. This type is designed to behave like a worm in real life. It is specifically designed to exploit a weakness in an operating system and burrow into it. Once inside it then begins to act like a worm and starts eating and deleting files usually resulting in a crippled computer. The development of worms has slowed somewhat due to newer operating systems but they are still around on the internet.
The newer types of virus mentioned earlier have no classification as of yet. They are simply called malicious software and they act like malware, adware, spyware, and worms combined. They can hold your computer hostage, steal your identity, bring adware into your system, cripple it, and in many cases destroy most of your key operating system files.
Countermeasures are currently being developed to tackle these vicious programs but it is slow going. There are many different types of harmful virus running around on the internet but hopefully this article has given you an idea of what you’re up against. Remember to never click on anything suspicious and avoid pop ups from strange websites !