Why make computer viruses

Children are routinely vaccinated against these viruses to prevent infection as they grow. Computers can also be vaccinated against viruses with an anti-malware tool like Panda Dome. Like medical vaccines, Panda Dome identifies potential viruses and prevents them from being installed — or from infecting your computer.

By preventing your computer from becoming infected you also avoid the trouble of trying to recover lost data, reinstalling software and repairing any damage to the system. And you can protect yourself today — download a free trial of Panda Dome here. Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.

Your email address will not be published. Mobile News Security Why is it called a computer virus? March 12, 3 minute read. There are a few things that we all can do to protect our computers.

It prevents access to infected websites, cleans malware from your email, and blocks infected files from USB devices. If you do get infected, Trend Micro offers free tools to clean up your computer and get you back in the running. In short, whenever you go online use caution and keep your defenses up! Is ransomware a virus? Ransomware can be a virus. In fact, the very first ransomware was a virus more on that later.

Nowadays, most ransomware comes as a result of computer worm, capable of spreading from one system to the next and across networks without user action e. Is a rootkit a virus? Rootkits are not viruses. Is a software bug a virus? Software bugs are not viruses. A software bug refers to a flaw or mistake in the computer code that a given software program is made up of.

Software bugs can cause programs to behave in ways the software manufacturer never intended. The Y2K bug famously caused programs to display the wrong date, because the programs could only manage dates through the year After the year rolled over like the odometer on an old car to While the Y2K bug was relatively harmless, some software bugs can pose a serious threat to consumers.

Cybercriminals can take advantage of bugs in order to gain unauthorized access to a system for the purposes of dropping malware, stealing private information, or opening up a backdoor. This is known as an exploit. Preventing computer viruses from infecting your computer starts with situational awareness. By staying on the lookout for phishing attacks and avoiding suspicious links and attachments, consumers can largely avoid most malware threats.

Regarding email attachments and embedded links, even if the sender is someone you know: viruses have been known to hijack Outlook contact lists on infected computers and send virus laden attachments to friends, family and coworkers, the Melissa virus being a perfect example.

A simple call or text message can save you a lot of trouble. Next, invest in good cybersecurity software. Antivirus AV refers to early forms of cybersecurity software focused on stopping computer viruses. Just viruses. Given a choice between traditional AV with limited threat detection technology and modern anti-malware with all the bells and whistles, invest in anti-malware and rest easy at night. As mentioned previously in this piece, traditional AV solutions rely on signature-based detection.

AV scans your computer and compares each and every file against a database of known viruses that functions a lot like a criminal database.

Going back to our virus analogy one final time—removing a virus from your body requires a healthy immune system. Same for your computer. A good anti-malware program is like having a healthy immune system. The free version of Malwarebytes is a good place to start if you know or suspect your computer has a virus. Available for Windows and Mac, the free version of Malwarebytes will scan for malware infections and clean them up after the fact.

Get a free premium trial of Malwarebytes for Windows or Malwarebytes for Mac to stop infections before they start. You can also try our Android and iOS apps free to protect your smartphones and tablets. All the tactics and techniques employed by cybercriminals creating modern malware were first seen in early viruses. Things like Trojans, ransomware, and polymorphic code. These all came from early computer viruses. I knew a few guys in the early 90s who wrote viruses simply to get noticed as capable programmers.

Offering up a virus, then creating a removal tool and sending it to major players F-protect, Computer Associates, Kaspersky, etc. In fact, I remember a time when that was the key focus behind writing viruses and exploiting code -- to show off your talents compared to existing engineers.

Who do you think major antivirus companies hire to write removal tools? The same criminals who exploit systems, of course. Then they'd go to a competitor and show them the competition's weaknesses and use THAT to get work with the competitor. If I had to guess, I'd say that the most common reasons to write viruses these days, by far, are at least somewhat profit-motivated.

The I Love You email virus was kind of a watershed incident, the point where a lot of people really started noticing the growing trend in profit-generating mobile malicious code. Any attempt to explain away all virus, worm, and other malicious code writing using a single generalization is unreasonably simplistic, though.

Virus writers are people, too -- at least in that they may have any of millions of different motivations for what they do -- even if they're often subhuman in some respects as well notably in their ethical development. Most are probably motivated by some combination of more than one of the above suggestions, in fact, and perhaps by other reasons we haven't touched on. Chad Perrin is an IT consultant, developer, and freelance professional writer.

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