Viruses, spyware and malicious content can be picked up almost anywhere on the internet now.  You can be infected by receiving an email from a friend who has been infected, to IMing with colleagues.  You can pretty much guarantee if you are connected to the internet you are going to be attacked by malicious software.  So what are these viruses and how do they work?

Brief definitions provided by: HowStuffWorks.com

• Viruses – A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or wreak havoc.

• E-mail viruses – An e-mail virus travels as an attachment to e-mail messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim’s e-mail address book. Some e-mail viruses don’t even require a double-click — they launch when you view the infected message in the preview pane of your e-mail software [source: Johnson].

• Trojan horses – A Trojan horse is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically.

• Worms – A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.

• Virus detection and removal can be performed on machines when caught early.  If you wait to long, and do not eliminate the threat(s) immediately, you could end up having to re-format your entire machine.  This could result in loss of data, programs, pictures, music and other media.  To avoid these issues find a reasonable anti-virus program as well as other spyware and malware removal tools that will keep your machine protected.

• AVG Anti-Virus
• Malwarebytes
• Spybot Search and Destroy
• CCleaner