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"What is a computer virus?"
A computer virus is a small program that can replicate itself. It cannot exist alone, but attaches itself to a real program. In this respect it appears similar to a biological virus that needs a host cell, which is why the name was coined.

For example a virus might attach itself to a spreadsheet program; each time the spreadsheet program is run, the virus runs also and may be able to attach itself to other programs or cause mischief. Some viruses are relatively harmless but put a message up on the screen so that the idiot who wrote it can make a point; others are more malevolent.

The first viruses materialized in the 80s when personal computers running DOS first appeared. Initially these computers didn't have hard drives, only floppy drives, and operating systems were loaded from floppies. Viruses were often spread by infected floppy disks.

"What is a boot sector virus?"
A 'boot sector' virus is so called because it runs in the boot sector of the operating system, a small program that tells the computer how to load the rest of the operating system. Thus every time the operating system is booted the virus is run and can infect the boot sector of any floppy disk that's inserted into the floppy drive.

Years ago I had a boot sector virus on a computer with a small hard drive (20MB). By the time I found the virus it had infected many of my floppy disks. Luckily the virus did no real harm and I repaired the floppies easily with an anti-virus program.

However, it was a real pain as I had to check every floppy I had, which was not too easy as the floppies were located in different places. To rid the hard drive of the virus I had to reformat it and reload the operating system. However, the first time didn't work and I had to not only reformat the drive again but use a Norton utility that overwrote the reformatted drive to clean it absolutely.

At that time it was usual to scan drives when you thought of it; later it became possible to program your computer to scan at regular intervals, maybe once a week. Same with upgrades; you relied mainly on your memory to upgrade once a week or fortnight. Now modern anti-virus programs can access the internet at intervals and download the latest files.

"What is an E-mail virus?"
Of recent years viruses have been spread more by E-mail than by any other method. An E-mail viruse commonly replicates itself by mailing itself to people in the computer's address book.

A common ploy of the virus originator is to attach the virus to a file that is sent as an E-mail attachment. Directly the attachment is opened the virus is released to do it's evil work. But viruses aren't hid only in attachments. This used to be the case but today simply opening a dodgy Email can release the virus. This is why it's so important to use an anti-virus that monitors Emails full-time.

"What is a worm?"
A worm is a small program that exploits holes in security systems to replicate itself. It is of particular concern to networks of which the Internet is a prime example. A major concern with worms is that they can multiply so quickly as to clog up and slow down internet traffic.

"What is a trojan horse?"
History tells us about the Trojan Horse that was built to get soldiers into an enemy town. The people pulled the huge model of a horse into their town, not realising that it contained enemy soldiers. The computer Trojan Horse works on a similar principle. You gladly load the program onto your computer believing it to be something good. Instead it's an evil piece of work that may trash your hard drive.

"Well, that's the problem; what's the answer?"
Luckily all the variations of virus can be fought in the same way, with an Anti-Virus (AV) program. I use and recommend AVG with Firewall. It's very reasonable priced and there's also a free version. However, the situation changes all the time and other AVs are probably just as good.

A good Anti-Virus should have at least the following attributes

1) It must load at the start-up of your operating system
2) It must actively protect your computer all the time the computer is running
3) There must be facilities to do complete scans at regular intervals.
4) Also scans of individual files or folders.
5) It must scan both incoming and outgoing E-mails
6) Automatic updating of virus definition files every couple of days or so to keep abreast of new developments.

If you can afford it you can buy the latest version of your chosen AV at your local software store but otherwise an older version is OK as it can be brought up to date once you've loaded it on your computer by using the update facility as soon as possible. Amazon can supply the best of AVs, either the current version or older versions. Take a look now! There are free anti-virus programs available for download from the Internet, but this is false economy. The major Anti-Virus programs are reasonably priced; why put your computer at risk?

"Take special care with your E-mail security?"
E-mails are by far the most likely cause of your computer becoming infected by a virus, so it's only prudent to take special precautions.

When you've installed a good Anti-Virus program to monitor incoming and outgoing E-mails you've gone a long way to ensuring your computer's security. But Anti-Virus programs suffer from one deficiency; they can only protect against known viruses and new viruses are being hatched every day. You'd be unlucky to be caught out in this way with an unknown virus, but the possibility is always there.

So I use two more levels of security that reduce the possibility of my computer being infected through an E-mail virus.

1) I filter my Emails through Mailwasher Pro, a program that enables you to check and even read your Emails whilst they're still on your ISP's computer. Those you don't want can be deleted on Mailwasher and therefore never reach your computer. In addition Mailwasher will identify Emails carrying viruses.
Check out Mailwasher Pro here

2)Those Emails that I allow on to my computer are passed through the Benign (B9) program. This is a program that detects 'dodgy' code in Emails. It does it by a different method from Anti-virus programs, only letting through recognised and orthodox code. Dodgy code is made innocuous.
Read about Benign here.