A computer virus is a malicious computer program that, like a living virus, can infect a system and multiply, doing potentially irreparable damage to your computer. Also like a living virus, the computer virus can infect other computers. Anti virus protection refers to software that serves as a computer vaccine, guarding your computer against the effects of viruses and other malware (programs that can harm your computer and/or network).

• Computer Viruses

Typically, computer viruses invade systems when someone downloads the program unwittingly to their computer, by opening an e-mail attachment or loading a piece of software which contains the program from a disk or flash drive. Networked computers are in special danger from viruses because once one computer is infected, the virus can spread throughout the entire network. Computer viruses can do everything from freezing your computer to displaying an annoying message to crashing your hard drive.

• Anti Virus Protection

For this reason, every computer should have, and every business computer network MUST have, anti virus protection. This typically means software which locates and destroys known viruses on your computer or network. Good anti virus software scans incoming e-mails, messages and uploaded software to eliminate the virus before it even gets into your system. Anti virus software can also be used to defend against other forms of malware like Trojan Horses and worms. TranquilNet can help you set up an affordable, reliable anti-virus protection program to keep your network safe.

• Anti Virus Updates

Anti virus protections need to be regularly updated so that the software knows what to look for. Other ways to protect against viruses include keeping backups of all your files and doing regular System Restores, which restore your system to the last uninfected state.