What is a computer virus?
A virus is a small program designed to cause damage to your computer by gaining access to it. A virus can copy your personal data or slow your computer down.
A computer virus spreads by duplicating and attaching itself to a program or file. This enables it to spread from one computer to another. Like a human virus, a computer virus can vary in severity – some viruses might cause some mildly annoying effects, whilst others can cause serious damage to your hardware, software and files.
It is important to note that a virus cannot spread without a human action, for example someone clicking on a button or link to run the infected program.
What is malware?
By combining the words ‘malicious’ (meaning ‘harmful’) and ‘software’ we get the word ‘malware’. Viruses are just one type of malware. Other types include spyware, worms and trojans.
Spyware
Spyware is software that installs itself onto computers and then steals personal information about the user, like passwords, email addresses and other important information. It often does it just by keeping a record of everything the user types, which is called key logging. Some spyware can even use your webcam without your knowledge!
Worms
Worms can spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus they don’t need to attach themselves to other programs. Worms can copy themselves hundreds of times, so they can very quickly harm your computer and other computers. A worm might copy itself onto your email account and then send a copy to all of your email contacts!
Child Focus ‘E-safety’
Spam emails
Everyone gets very irritated when they receive unwanted emails from unknown senders, these are called spam emails, or junk mail. Junk mail like this may sometimes contain viruses or trojans that enter your system as soon as you open the mail, or when you open an attachment to the email.
Trojans
A trojan horse (or trojan) pretends it will be a useful and safe program, when actually it will try to attack your computer.
Trojans are named after the story of the Trojan Horse. It is said that many years ago the Greek army wheeled a large wooden horse to the gates of the city of Troy. The people of Troy thought it was a gift and wheeled it inside. They didn’t know that inside the horse were Greek soldiers waiting to attack.
What can happen to your device?
Malware is designed to stop your computer from running properly. Sometimes, it is made to steal your information.
Your computer can be harmed very quickly if it is infected by malware. It is likely to crash, reboot or slow down.
Your internet connection may also slow down as the virus or worm searches for other computers to infect, or transmits your data back to its maker.
antivirus
Top tips for prevention
1. When using the web or email don’t click on anything unless you know what it is.
2. Never open unknown emails from your spam/junk folder.
3. Check each email to see if it is an email you’re expecting from an address you recognise.
4. Install anti-virus software and run regular scans. This will highlight any suspicious software.
5. Keep the anti-virus software up-to-date.
6. Do not run a program if you don’t know where it has come from and haven’t chosen to install it.
7. Keep your computer system up to date and use genuine software.
Follow this hyperlink to learn more:-
BBC Bitesize
Computing Home Page
Icons - Copy
Click here for KS2 Curriculum Dashboard (All Subjects)
