There are over 30,000 known computer viruses and new viruses are being written every day. The number of computer hoaxes (lies) is not as high as the number of viruses, but for the many computer users, who may believe the false information, hoaxes can cause them a lot of emotion and wasted time. The hoaxes are annoying but, if the user can recognize them, can be easily deleted. It is the threat of a computer virus that is the most important to a user because no system is immune to a virus infection. There are methods for detecting a virus, eliminating it and protecting the system from further trouble.

A computer virus is a piece of software designed to enter a system and infect the files. A virus will duplicate itself and try to infect as many files and systems as possible. If the hard disc is infected and the user saves a file to disk, it will probably infect the disk and will be passed on to other systems that use the infected disc. On the other way, if a virus-infected disk is introduced to the system, it will infect the system. ("What Is A Virus?" 1)

There are four main types of computer viruses; boot sector, file or program, macro, and multipartite. T

The conclusion is that there are ways to protect a computer system from a virus through the use of anti-virus software. Even when a virus is detected, there are solutions for cleaning and restoring the hard drive. A user cannot be assured the system is totally protected because some viruses are introduced without his/her knowing it. Still, the best

he boot sector viruses are usually transmitted by an infected floppy disk that is left in the disc drive and then the system is rebooted. The virus is then

Many users are frightened when they get false warnings about viruses such as Trojans. Other hoaxes (lies) will often tell the user about "malicious code that has no basis." (CIAC 1). Then there is the chain e-mail that threatens the user or the computer if the message is not passed on. Other chain letters promise bad luck if they are not forwarded. Still others tell of give-aways by large companies. "If you only send this on, some big company will send you a lot of money, clothes, a free vacation, etc., etc. Expect to wait a long time for any of these to pay off" (CIAC 1). The only way to protect a user from these hoaxes is to be able to recognize them and delete them. The Hoaxbusters web site, supported by the CIAC division of the U.S. Department of Energy, lists the most common hoaxes and suggests users ignore them.

Finally, the multipartite viruses have characteristics like the boot sector viruses and the file viruses. They can start out in the boot sector and then spread to the system's applications or the other way around. (Types of Viruses 2) There are other programs called "worms" or "Trojan horses" that are not viruses but have the same effect. These worms replicate themselves by e-mail, "making use of any Outlook address books" (Types of Viruses 2).

virus has been introduced in the original handling of the disc. (How Your Data Gets Infected 1) But the main ways

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hoaxes Protect, System Viruses, Types Viruses, Department Energy, Data Infected, Computer Viruses, Bruce Stewart, Word Excel, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express, system virus, types viruses, boot sector, anti-virus software, computer viruses, hoaxes lies, viruses 1, data infected, hard disc, user system, types viruses 2, boot sector viruses, virus protection software, types viruses 1, drive anti-virus software,
Approximate Word count = 1285
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)