Viruses and Spyware

Viruses are small programs, intentionally created to damage your computer software. Viruses enter your computer via certain attachments received by Email or while installing certain software downloaded from malicious websites. Viruses can also be downloaded from P2P (Peer to peer) applications such as Napster, Kazaa, iMesh, eMule and even Torrents. So be aware of the risk!

A virus usually multiplies once it finds its way on your computer, and starts infecting many important Operating System (Windows) files. There are many sorts of viruses, some are called Worms, others Trojan Horses. Trojan Horses not only demage your software (which starts working erratically) but they can also give access to your files for other people. The person who has this access can delete files on your computer, install files, see what you are watching on your screen, steal software/files, or make your computer to crash! [for more information visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_(computing)].

Spyware is a different sort of "headache". It does not damage your software but it is still very annoying. Spyware usually is software installed on your computer without your permission and can be downloaded from certain websites or also from P2P applications. It is not usually distributed by Email. Spyware can make adverts pop-up on your screen, it can make web-sites automatically pop-up or it can force you to use a certain Search Engine instead of the one of your preference.

Have you ever experienced a virus on your computer? And what about Spyware? What do you think you should do to prevent, as much as possible, such infections?