A virus is a kind of harmful code or program that, when carried out, duplicates itself by customizing other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this duplication prospers, the impacted areas are then said to be contaminated with an infection.
Infections often spread by producing a copy of themselves on a user's computer system without the user's understanding or approval. In a lot of cases, viruses will be spread by e-mail accessories or by files shared on peer-to-peer networks. As soon as an infection has infected a computer, it can spread out to other computers on the same network.
Some infections are set to spread themselves in a method that might trigger major damage to a computer system. For instance, a virus might delete files, fill a hard disk drive with useless data, or corrupt system files. Sometimes, a virus might click here even show a message or image that is developed to frighten the user.
Many viruses are reasonably safe, and only trigger small annoyance to the user. Some viruses can be really hazardous, and can cause prevalent damage to computer systems.