Knowing the importance of having anti-virus software is an important part of being a computer user. Just as your home is vulnerable to thieves so is your home network systems. Without protection, vital information can become at risk for hackers to obtain your personal and private information.

What is a Virus: Viruses come in many forms and are more harsh today than they were ten years ago. Once your system becomes infected it can begin to run slowly causing software to crash or not work at all. If your systems are on a network there is a chance that the infection will enter other machines too.

Once infected, the virus can run in the background and the users can have no clue what is happening until its to late. The system will start to run slower because crucial files may be overwritten giving hackers the access he or she is looking for. Weeks or months may pass before owners notice. The main reason someone might catch on is the operating system may slow down or unwanted programs executing at random times.

This allows personal information such as bank accounts numbers to be stolen and used to transfer money from your personal account to the hackers accounts or any designated place they see fit. Stored passwords are also vulnerable if they are not stored correctly. Social security numbers can also be stolen this way creating an opportunity for thieves to steal your identity and take over your life by running up bills or making purchases in your name without consent from you.

Where do they come from: Its done by highly intelligent people that write programs to override and rewrite computer programs with well hidden and often undetectable code. Many programmers do it for fun but most for gaining access to financial records in hopes of making their bank accounts bigger while draining yours. These types of programs are released through emails, websites, videos and more recently anything you can download. Individuals all over the world are coming up with news ways to invade peoples lives through use of computers.

What are the various types of viruses: Suppose your computer or networks slow to a crawl. Meaning it takes more time than usual to do one or more things that took only seconds, this is considered a worm. It prevents you from doing tasks at a fast rate and slows you down until you basically give up trying to accomplish anything. It can attack your bandwidth and prevent you from going to websites as normal sending a red flag to your service provider who then in turn contacts you to let you know that your limit is reached.

Functions you would not do yourself are done by Trojans. Rewriting vital system information or even taking over and using space or opening and closing software with error messages. Users think they have made mistakes. Programs that spy and send information to programs are called malware. It collects account transactions such as banking, emails, contact lists and more to send out your information to thieves. It also tracks where and what you do online.

Knowing the importance of having anti-virus software and its use prevents hackers from infecting your network and stealing your personal information. In today's society, people do not worry about their homes being broken into as they do their computers being hacked by vicious people trying to steal their identity. Save yourself the headache and trouble, obtain great software to prevent this from happening to you.