Computers have been around for quite some time. Because since the theory was established, they have helped us make everyday tasks easier. Today, with ever-advancing AI and computing, we take small things for granted, and computers help us do such simple calculations or store our files. It's easy to forget that about 30 years ago, these little tasks were considered breakthroughs in general computing and computer science.
It all started with the good old abacus which was invented by the Chinese. This is the first ever computing device. The consensus is that the abacus is a million times inferior to the smartphones we have today. With the advancement Latest Mailing Database of technology and manufacturing, as well as better usability of equipment things started to slowly become more and more complex. We're seeing the transition from being able to story a few megabytes to an SD card, which is now capable of storing a quarter of a terabyte on a floppy disk of a decidedly small size.
As it would in nature everything would be good for an evil adversary and things would balance out like yin and yang. This is the case with calculations as well. Not only can it be done that so many of our good technologies are being abused a lot. It has also been exploited many times in a nasty way to make the lives of innocent users troublesome. I hope you can see my plan.
Let's talk about viruses and malware
Before we get into the details let's get into the details of how viruses learn how to avoid them and undo the damage caused.
A computer virus, unlike its biological counterpart, is a program that, when executed/installed on a computer, alters the normal working of the machine and causes a program to function in several different ways. It can fork multiple threads in the background to hog your memory, or create duplicate files that eat up your precious storage space or worse, it could start deleting files or corrupt the core of your operating system.
In recent times, there have been multiple instances where several critical business extensions had to be shut down due to malware until the spread was isolated. A recent example is the WannaCrypt ransomware, which affects multiple Windows machines. With ever-advancing technology, viruses and other malicious programs have become smarter than ever, and some have become so sophisticated that they can mistake the operating system for a harmless program. Before we get started on how we can avoid viruses, let's take a look at how they start and how far they are coming to really understand the threat and the amount they pose.
Computer viruses: a brief history of their existence
The idea of ​​computer viruses is by no means new, in fact, it exists since 1949 Johann von Neumann came up with his theory and previous work on the theory of self-reproducing automata on computers. In the early 1970s the core wars were also written programs which had the ability to fight each other to survive in the memory space. The actual term "computer virus" was coined during a 1981 conversation between Leonard Adleman's M and Professor Cornfred. Later in 1983 Fred Cohen proposed the concept of computer virus in his lectures for the first time and 8 hours, which gave him full access to all the functions implemented by computer viruses. Since 1985, computer viruses have become a thing, and most people are distributing joke programs, but every once in a while there are some things that are really poisonous. By the early 1990s viruses were a household name, mostly affecting com files, but have since become more sophisticated and clever, attacking system-level files, or corrupting or encrypting data. By creating computer viruses throughout the enterprise around the year 2000, several virus removal programs came to market to help users stay safe and sanitize affected systems. Today, computer viruses pose more threats than ever before. Every business is reliant on computer technology, and operating failure or failure in one location can cause significant capital losses. It only makes sense that users take all possible measures to protect their systems and, in the event of an infection, understand the steps that will be taken to restore the damage. This article will be divided into one of 2 parts to protect the second disinfection system, which will include a comparison of some of the most popular antivirus programs, including some free products. I'll try to keep it on point and let's get it right in.
Part 1: Prevention
The first step in preventing computer virus infection is to protect your computer from all possible sources of infection. This means the first protection of your browser's activities. The most common way to get malware on your system is the internet. There are millions of fake websites out there that pretend to be innocuous but trick you into downloading a small game or suggest an app that turns out to be one piece of malware, not several versions. In these cases, my best advice would be to absolutely trust your browser. Sincerely you are a Chrome user, don't ignore the warning that Chrome gives when you try to visit a website that is using an insecure connection. Always prefer it to use HTTPS protocol in its website content using HTTP. Second, make sure not to plug in a USB drive obtained from an untrusted source. Windows users this is mostly for you. People using MacOS and Linux are still way ahead in terms of security than Windows. Make sure you explore the device on your computer using an antivirus program before scanning it. If you are using a public computer, make sure it has antivirus software before you copy files from it to the hard drive or USB flash drive. Finally, by default the ad (unless it is served by Google and Facebook) is assumed to be a scam. No, your device is not infected by a critical virus , no they don't give you a free program to remove the infection. Three, always plan for the worst. You never know how complex and smart a program can be, so to be safe from those worst-case scenarios, be sure to keep backups of your important files. If you're using a Mac, make sure you're using a time machine. It always helps a ton to know that even if your entire system crashes, it can still recover completely.
These happen to be a few different ways how we get our computers infected. There are rare, more sophisticated methods for allowing attackers to target your computer to infect, but these are one-of-a-kind situations and are well beyond the scope of this article.
Part 2: Recovering the infection
Well, maybe you were a little careless or maybe someone accessed your computer accidentally when they installed something they didn't intend your system to be acting weird now. It becomes unresponsive after a while, you find that your storage is filling up faster and faster than expected, and worst of all you notice frequent freezes when your machine usually happens to work just fine. It is very likely that your system has been infected with a computer virus. Don't panic, today's date is more likely to happen than you really think. I'm here to help you out, let us guide you through a few steps to make sure we all get your machine back to its previous working state.
Step 1: Preparation
Relax, it happens. Now before we actually start doing something to avoid this disaster, let's make sure you don't have any external storage devices attached to the system. If you do, it's safe to assume that the device connected to the machine is also infected. Make sure you format it before using it anywhere else. (It's a backup to save people's ass).
Step 2: Choose among the possible options
On some platforms, it is easier to recover from such damage or failure. If you're using Windows or MacOS (time machine enabled), you might be out of luck. Thanks to regularly scheduled backups, the system keeps a time stamp of several days, so you can go back in time to a specific state. Windows users can initiate System Restore to recover the infection. Hold down the Shift key and click the restart option to get to the troubleshooting screen. Now, select Advanced Options, then go to System Restore and try to restore to a point in time when your system vital signs were normal.