On a daily basis I have to try and explain to someone what Malware is and then what a Virus is. Some people do not know what Malware is. Basically they recognize that their computer is not acting right. It may be slow or when they are on the internet it goes somewhere else. Basically it is being redirected to a website where someone may try to sell you something. One tell tale sign is just look at your desktop. You might see some shortcuts to programs that you did not install. Two of my favorites are pc optimizer or PC Tech 24/7 . If you see these you are infected with malware.
So Malware is a program that is on your computer telling you that your computer is infected with thousands of infections. It may also be a program telling you that your registry is corrupt or your system is corrupt and needs to be repaired. They want you to either buy their program, which is nothing but all false positives. In other words it is telling you things that are not true. The common problem is that they want you to pay for something that really does not exist, because they just want your money.
This may be a little annoying, but it gets the point across
Now a Virus does not do the things mentioned above. A virus will basically spread on it's own and do its dirty work. It may look for other computers on your network, so it can then spread to other computers. It may infect your email so that when you send an email to someone it will in a sense hitchhike and place and infected email into someones email so when they open it their system will become infected. This can go on and on, so more and more computers will become infected. There are some viruses that will basically lock your computer up and hold it hostage. There may be a fake FBI warning that comes up on the display wanting to to pay a fee to unlock your computer. The cryptolocker virus will encrypt your hard drive so your data is gone and the only way to get it back is by paying a fee in a certain amount of time. Most of the time it does not work and all is lost. Some viruses infect your address book and send emails with infections to everyone so that they will be infected. I have seen some that will corrupt your internet connection by putting ip addresses in your tcpip settings or corrupt your winsock so you can not go on to the internet. Some just plain want to steal your information or get your bank information to steal your money.
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| This would be an example of a virus |
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| This would be an example of Malware |
So my final advise is BACK UP BACK UP and BACK UP SOME-MORE. Thank You for reading and stay safe.
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