What is a Virus
A virus is a computer program someone has made which is malicious in nature, that is designed to do something on your computer you do not want or against your reasons.
A while back, pre-internet computer viruses where basically programs which did damage to your computer hardware, software or data.
But as more and more people use the internet for daily actives and personal finance, computer viruses have evolved. The crimainals have basically said, “Why hurt Joes computer, when I can spy on him and make money”.
We see few viruses these days that just destroy. Most viruses spy on customers, or have some other motive and goal such as pushing your web site browsing to their websites to buy their products.
What is a Antivirus
Antivirus programs are applications designed by people and company’s to fight the the viruses which are trying and infecting peoples computers.
Once a virus has infected a computer it is often too late so antiviruses focus on not letting that happen.
There are many antivirus companies around which you have probably heard of such as Norton, AVG and Avast.
People often ask me which is the best antivirus program and I find it hard to answer them. On there day, each is the best. Each antivirus programs do things very different. Where Norton might be weak, AVG could be strong.
Why Did I Still Get Infected
So you have a antivirus program to protect your computer and even though you have paid for it you still got infected.
That is because antivirus programs are very good, but not 100%, and they do not complain to be!
I always compare them to wearing a helmet. You have a much better chance of protecting you head with a helmet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you still wont get an injury.
Also, antivirus programs don’t protect us from ourselves as much as we might like. Often it is not some stranger putting something onto our computer, but us downloading a file which is infected and installing it.
And other factors can contribute to an infection such as your antivirus not being up to date, and your computers operating system having the relevant updates and upgrades.
