What are computer viruses and how can I protect myself from them?

Answer: A virus is a program or file which can do a variety of harmful things to your computer. Things like causing your computer to crash, creating tons of random files, or worse yet, deleting files. Most viruses can replicate themselves, which can be a big problem if they get on a computer network.

To protect yourself from viruses you should make sure you have an anti-virus program installed on your computer such as Symantec Anti-Virus, or McAfee Virus Scan. The most common way to get a computer virus is through an e-mail attachment. So it's best to not open any file that is questionable until you find out for sure that it's safe.

Published: January 25, 2000 — by Per Christensson