What are viruses, spyware, and adware?
A virus is usually written by a single individual who is looking to attain recognition by creating a virus that gains attention in the news. Most viruses do little permanent damage to a machine, in favor of maintaining stealth operations that the user is unaware of. Most often, these operations acquire your email address book, and send the contacts in your address book emails infected with the virus. This is done in attempts to propagate the virus to other machines. Spyware and Adware are more serious threats than viruses because they are written by actual companies. These companies are hired by large retailers and have advertising dollars behind them, so they are revised on a daily basis to prevent removal by most canned software. Spyware and Adware are cloaked programs that are usually intended to acquire your shopping information and habits. These programs often re-direct you to the advertisers website with the hopes you will purchase their product. Here’s a fictional but typical ex
