How serious are viruses?
Viruses can pose a serious problem but there are many other threats to your programs and data that are much more likely to harm you than viruses. Problems such as hardware failures, software conflicts, software bugs, and even typos are much more likely to cause undetected damage to your data than viruses. A well known anti-virus researcher once said that you have more to fear from a spilled cup of coffee than from viruses. And though the growth in number of viruses now puts this statement into question, there are many more occurrences of data corruption from other causes than from viruses. This is not to say that viruses are nothing to worry about. It simply means that businesses cannot afford to ignore the other threats to our data as well as viruses. However, because viruses have been deliberately written to invade and possibly damage your PC, they are one of the most difficult threats to guard against. …
