Guest Author - Debbie Jacobsen
Many people use the term “computer virus” to describe both viruses and spyware. A virus is different from spyware, and the software you buy to protect against one won’t necessarily protect you from the other.
Computer viruses have been around for quite a long time – since the early days of the internet. Viruses can cause serious destruction of files or simply perform some type of nuisance activity on your PC. Spyware is relatively new, and is designed to attack YOU – not your computer. Spyware is the leading cause of internet identity theft, and also the leading cause of computer hijacking.
So what’s the difference between a virus and spyware?
Computer Virus
A virus is designed to spread to as many computers as possible, and one of the characteristics of any virus is to self-replicate. Once a computer virus has “infected” your system, its first task is to find a way to spread to your friend’s and coworker’s computers. Viruses spread by attaching themselves to certain types of files. Most modern viruses will automatically send emails out through your email address, including an infected attachment that appears to be from you. They do this “behind the scenes”, so you won’t usually see evidence of this mass-mailing in your sent items folder.
Computer viruses can destroy files and can even destroy your entire operating system, quickly crashing your computer for good. The only way to recover from this is to reformat your hard drive and reload Windows and all your applications. Some really destructive viruses can even affect hardware, attacking your system BIOS (the software that’s embedded in your motherboard – that allows the PC to start up). Other viruses are created for “fun”, and might make certain applications act strangely or show messages on your screen. Other viruses don’t do much of anything except email everyone in your address book.
Antivirus software is designed to find and destroy viruses by using a database of known virus “definitions”. The code of known viruses is compared to the code within every file in your system. When a match is found, the virus is “quarantined” and an attempt is made to “clean” it. If the virus cannot be “cleaned”, it is destroyed.
Spyware
Spyware is designed a lot differently than a virus, because its purpose is different. Spyware has become just as prevalent as computer viruses, but it is much more dangerous. Unlike a computer virus, spyware could care less about destroying your files or corrupting your operating system. Spyware has one purpose – to infiltrate your computer for personal gain.
The people who create spyware are con artists and thieves. Once spyware is on your computer, it might steal your passwords and user id’s, or it might hijack your computer and secretly use it’s processing power. Spyware is the leading cause of internet identity theft (which is escalating at an alarming rate) and phishing scams which are carried out by spamming. Spyware is transmitted to your PC very quickly and secretly. You can get infected with spyware by opening a tainted email attachment, downloading software, clicking on malformed hyperlinks or simply landing on certain web pages. Spyware does not self-replicate like a virus does.
Antispyware software is designed to identify and destroy spyware by comparing a database of known spyware code patterns to the files on your computer. When a match is found, it is destroyed. Because spyware is built totally different than viruses, antivirus software will not see spyware (and vice-versa).
How to Protect Yourself from Viruses and Spyware
Because both viruses and spyware are equally dangerous in their own way, you need to make sure you are protected from both. The only way to assure you are protected is to use antivirus software as well as antispyware software. You can buy these products separately, but the easiest (and cheapest) thing to do is to buy a computer security suite. This will provide you with protection from viruses and spyware, and will also give you the added protection of a personal firewall. Always make sure your antivirus and antispyware software is set to automatically download updates every day. This ensures that you always have the most recent spyware and virus definitions.
Here is where you can get more information on computer security suites.
SpyCop is an outstanding antispyware product that you might want to consider if you already have antivirus software and don’t want to invest in an internet security suite. SpyCop has the world’s largest database of spyware definitions, and catches more spyware than any other product.
