This is not urban legend, it is as real as your blood pressure silently creeping up on you. When you first notice it, it is too late because you need medication to restore its balance.
Similarly, you and your computer are a likely target for attack by computer viruses and malware programs. Bad guys use their programming expertise to design viruses and other malware to gain control of your computer, for their own benefit. This can mean creating havoc in your computer system or destroying your data files.
A computer virus acts the same way a biological virus does. It copies itself and passes on these copies to files, programs, and even other computers. Viruses are among several types of malicious software, also known as malware. Viruses can range in nastiness from taking up valuable memory space, to deleting files, to freezing your computer system.
Trojan horses and worms are another types of malware. Worms and viruses work much the same way, except a worm doesn’t need another program to make it start working. Finally, trojan horses are another brand of malware used to carry its poison by programs you might innocently download from the Internet.
Clever misfits design malware for more than one purpose. Some can delete your operating systems files or your data files. Others can take your personal information and then send it back to the person who sent the malware. This an ingenious trick used to gain access to your credit card number and password, steal money from your bank account, or send you official sounding fake letters to get you to allow a particular transaction. Finally, these destructive programs can wipe out your data.
You need to protect your computer from these mischievous programs. Install an anti virus program and add a firewall to control what data gets in and what goes out from your computer.