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Some viruses can be extremely threatening to the security of your data and may not get deleted even after you run anti-virus software on your computer. With the advent of the Internet, the virus threats to your precious data have increased significantly. What are Viruses, Worms, and Trojans? How Can They Harm Your Data? Many of the virus threats in the recent past have made it to the news headlines. The famous Sobig virus that infected millions of computers had many business operations stalled. Such deadly computer viruses not only disrupt the normal course of operations, but are also responsible for businesses losing millions in downtime and recovery operations. We will discuss the nature and impact of Viruses, Worms, and Trojans in the following section. Viruses Viruses tend to attach themselves to an executable program or file. When this file is transferred to your computer and you run this program, the virus infects your computer. Most of the times the users are not even aware that a virus has infected their computer and their data. Consequently, when the user forwards this program to more users via mail or other means, the virus spreads itself rapidly. Users are advised to open all email attachments with caution for this very reason. In fact, most of the viruses spread through email attachments. Dangerous as it may appear to be, the good part about viruses is that they can spread only with human action. Therefore, if you are cautious enough to not open any suspicious email attachment or program, you can save your data from getting infected. Worms Even though viruses can be very dangerous, companies these days may be more at risk due to worms than viruses. The business world of today is more of a virtual world wherein most of the transactions and business take place online. Most of the companies have their own servers to ensure that the online communication channel remains secure. Worms pose a huge threat to these servers. Viruses, though may spread rapidly from one computer to another, do not have the ability to replicate themselves. Worms, on the other hand, replicate themselves rapidly when they spread from one computer to another. Due to this ability to replicate rapidly, worms tend to consume a lot of memory space in a very short duration of time. Therefore, it very easy for worms to create havoc in the computers, web servers, and network servers. Under such situations, the servers do not respond and the operations come to a standstill. Worms can completely or partly cause damage to your valuable data. Trojans Most users get tricked into activating a Trojan because it attaches itself to legitimate software or the user may think that it is coming from a legitimate person. When the user opens the seemingly harmless software, the Trojan deletes or destroys the valuable files on your computer. Malicious users such as hackers can gain access to your confidential data by using Trojans. Therefore, not only your data but the security of your data too may be at risk. How to Recover Your Data from a Virus Attack? Your first step should be to run good and reliable anti-virus software. Good software will be able to give you an option to delete Trojans and worms as well as disinfect the infected data. Make sure that you run the ant-virus software on a regular basis to ensure that your computer remains clean even after the virus attack. There are times when even a good anti-virus software is unable to remove the virus from some of the infected data. In such cases, you may have to remove the virus by deleting the file to ensure that the virus does not spread itself. If your data has been corrupted by a virus, you may need a special utility to help you with your data loss woes. Most ant-virus software vendors have these utilities available for download on their websites. Tips to Safeguard Your Data against Viruses It is imperative that you install a good anti-virus software on your computer or server. Make sure that you set an automated schedule in the program so that the software can run at regular intervals and remove viruses before they can spread themselves. Never open an email attachment or run a software that you are even slightly unsure of. It is better to resist the temptation of a seemingly attractive mail or program than risking your data.
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James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk
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