Computer worms have become the technological bogeyman that scares users all over the world. We have all heard of how dangerous computer viruses are and how it can damage your files. Of course, aided by the bloated images Hollywood movies paint with regards to computer viruses, a big majority now have this insane fears about it. It is true that PC viruses are dangerous. Anyone who has lost vital information in their computers because of a computer virus will know how big a damage it can cause. But computer viruses are not these insidiously little pieces of code that could wreak havoc on the world. If you know what to do when you get a virus in your system then you can definitely limit, if not totally stop, the damage it can cause. But what is a virus? Well, it is a software with a small imprint that would usually attach itself on to a legitimate program or software. Every time this program is runned the virus is also executed and it tries to reproduce itself by attaching to other software or it immediately starts affecting the computer. A computer virus and email virus basically have the same modus operandi, the difference though is that an e-mail virus would attach itself to an email message or automatically send itself using the addresses in the address book in order to infect the people who receive the email. A computer virus is usually embedded in a program, often a legitimate piece of software. The virus will be run when the legitimate software is executed. The computer virus would load itself into the memory of the computer and then it will seek out any programs where it can likely attach itself. When a likely program is found then the worms would modify the file in order to add the virus' code to the program. The virus would run before the actual legitimate program runs. In fact, the virus would usually perform the infection first before it commands the legitimate program to run. This process is so fast that no one would even notice that a virus was executed. With two programs now infected (the original program and the first infected program), the same process would be repeated whenever either program is launched worsening the level of infection. After the infection phase, or even within the middle of the process of infection, the virus would usually start its attack on the system. The level of attack can range from actions like flashing messages on the screen to actually delete sensitive data. There are steps that you can do in order to secure your PC from viruses. Among the steps that you can take are: The simplest way to avoid a virus is to install a legitimate and effective antivirus program in your computer. The antivirus software is designed to look out for any kind of activity that could be seen as similar to a virus attack or infestation and it automatically stops it. -You can use a more secure operating system in your computer. For example, Unix is a secure operating system because the security features built into it prevents a virus from actually doing what it is programmed to do. -Enable Macro Virus Protection in all of the Microsoft applications resident in your PC. Additionally, you should avoid running macros in a word document unless you have a good idea of what these macros are going to do. - Avoid using software that you have downloaded on the web especially when they come from dubious sources. - Never open an e-mail attachment that contains an executable file – these are files with the EXE, COM,BAT and VBS extensions.