What Is a Computer Infection
What is a “Computer Virus”?
For those of us who use personal computers on a regular basis, whether at work or at home, we often live in fear of the dreaded “computer virus”. We understand generally what the term means, but often don’t know how computers can get infected and what the implications of that infection are. Since this could be a long discussion, let’s take a small portion of the issue and try to understand the reasons behind the infection.
Computer infections are small portions of computer code that are designed to be installed onto a computer without the permission of the user. The creators of computer infections usually are trying to accomplish some sort of goal. In general, these people can be considered cyber terrorists. They are trying to cause the PC user some sort of pain. That pain can take many forms. It can include the time it takes to remove the infection, the time it takes to fix the effects of the infection, the loss of productivity caused by the infection or the cost in terms of money it takes to buy software tools to remove the infection. In the worst cases, the pain includes stealing your identity or holding your computer hostage.