Virus
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The kind of Virus I would be talking about today is the Computer Virus.

What is a COMPUTER VIRUS
Just like the human virus that makes us sick, and often requires something powerful to get rid of it. A computer virus is very similar.
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It is designed to replicate relentlessly, infecting your programs and files, altering the way your computer operates or stop it from working altogether.

Technically, A computer virus is a malicious software program loaded onto a user’s computer often...
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causing damage to the system and data.
Similarly, in the same way that flu viruses cannot reproduce without a host cell, computer viruses cannot reproduce/survuve and spread without a file or document(host).

What does a computer virus do
Most computer viruses are...

created to harm computers by damaging programs, truncating files, or reformatting the hard drive while some others simply replicate themselves or flood a network with traffic, making it impossible to perform any internet activity.
Either way, a computer virus...
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can cause great disruption to your system’s performance.

A virus can steal your passwords or data, log keystrokes, corrupt your files, spam your email contacts, and even take over your device.
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How do they come about

***COMPUTER INFECTS THEMSELVES WITH VIRUSEES***
This is a myth, computers cannot infect themselves with viruses without a human induced action like a user opening an infected program or file, visiting a site that hosts viruses, and downloading it, etc.

After entering a computer, a virus attaches itself to a program, file, or document, the virus will then lie dormant until it is been triggered. In order for a virus to infect your computer, you have to run the infected program, which in turn causes the virus code to be executed.

This means that “a virus can remain dormant on your computer”, without showing major signs or symptoms, this debunks another common myths that says ‘You will know almost immediately when your computer is affected’. No, you won't.
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However, once the virus infects your computer, they spread when the software or documents they get attached to are transferred from one computer to another using a network, a disk, file sharing methods, or through infected e-mail attachments.
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How do computer viruses spread
Just like the human virus, a computer virus needs an host to stay alive and it is mostly attached to executable files, which makes it easy for viruses to be sent through networks and storage devices.
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Common ways they're propagated are through;
1.Emails
- Opening spam emails or suspicious email attachments
- Subscribing to mails from untrusted websites.

2. Visiting an infected website
- Viewing an infected advertisement can cause the virus to spread to your system.

3. Connecting an already infected removable storage devices, such as USB drives to your device

4. Downloading free/cracked games, toolbars, media players and other system utilities

Stay tuned for more about Viruses and other cyber security related contents.