Spyware is a term that has become quite common to hear.

The term spyware refers to a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer’s operation without the “known” consent of that machine’s owner or user. Spyware is as a term is being used quite loosely and includes a number of different programs. The thing they all have in common as spyware, is that they monitor the computer and/or user and share information with a third party. With or without the consent of the computer’s owner.

Semi spyware has become widely used and they manifest themselves as software, plugins or help files to other programs you want or need, and if you accept their policies and term of usage, you also accept the fact that these semi spyware programs will be installed and used.

They are normally not directly malicious as the secret spyware, but they do send out information from your computer to a third party. Most commonly some kind of habit tracing or statistics of surfing or similar. In most cases the information is completely anonymous and do not pose any kind of threat to you as an individual.

Spyware – a virus or not?

Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware – by design – exploits infected computers for commercial gain.

Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.

These things are very hard to keep track of and know if a spyware is alive in your computer or if pop ups and other changes in your surfing programs behaviour should occur.

The only reliable way to know if an evil spyware is living and thriving inside your computer, is to install and use a good spyware removal program.

How does spyware infect?

Spyware does not spread like a computer virus or worm. Instead, spyware installs on your computer through deception or exploitation of software vulnerabilities.

Spyware Trojan horse!

A Trojan horse, by definition, smuggles in something dangerous in the guise of something desirable. So spyware often hide as an add on to some other program you really want.

Bundled Spyware

Spyware can also come bundled with shareware or other downloadable software, as well as music CDs. The user downloads a program (for instance, a music program or a file-trading utility) and installs it, and the installer additionally installs the spyware. Although the desirable software itself may do no harm, the bundled spyware does.

Manipulating Security Features

Another way of distributing spyware involves tricking users by manipulating security features designed to prevent unwanted installations. Internet browsers like Internet Explorer for example are easy targets t this method. Everybody has them and use them online almost daily. The way you protect yourself against this, is to always keep your operating system up to date when it comes to security updates.

Use Microsoft Update regularly (and often).

Examples of Spyware

As with computer viruses, researchers give names to spyware programs which frequently do not relate to any names that the spyware-writers use. Researchers may group programs into “families” based not on shared program code, but on common behaviours, or by “following the money” or apparent financial or business connections.

For instance, a number of the spyware programs distributed by Claria are collectively known as “Gator”. Likewise, programs which are frequently installed together may be described as parts of the same spyware package, even if they function separately.

It is also important to know that different anti spyware program creators and big antivirus software creators may have different names for the save spyware. This can cause you to believe that you have 2 or more spyware products installed when you actually only have one, but mentioned with different names.

* CoolWebSearch, a group of programs, installs through the exploitation of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. The programs direct traffic to advertisements on Web sites including coolwebsearch. To make this happen, they display pop-up ads, rewrite search engine results, and alter the infected computer’s hosts file to direct DNS lookups to these sites.

* Internet Optimizer, also known as DyFuCa, redirects Internet Explorer error pages to advertising. When users follow a broken link or enter an erroneous URL, they see a page of advertisements. However, because password-protected Web sites (HTTP Basic authentication) use the same mechanism as HTTP errors, Internet Optimizer makes it impossible for the user to access password-protected sites.

* 180 Solutions transmits extensive information to advertisers about the Web sites which users visit. It also alters HTTP requests for affiliate advertisements linked from a Web site, so that the advertisements make unearned profit for the 180 Solutions company. It opens pop-up ads that cover over the Web sites of competing companies.

Toolbars from any other then the big players like Google, Yahoo, Msn and similar very often contains spyware to some degree today.

And even the big guns have started to incorporate “spyware like” statistics gather from their toolbars. They do tell you about them, and ask for your permission to install or active these routines. But they often do it in such a convoluted way, no one actually understand it.

So start out the day by cleaning your computer and then working. Make sure you have a restful safe day, download, scan and clean your computer from any spyware today …

Your PC has many “ports” which are vulnerable to attack from a hacker. These ports are used to communicate internally with your monitor or printer or externally to the internet. For example, Port 25 is used for receiving incoming email and Port 80 is used to connect to the internet.

In addition you have a unique IP number which is assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provide which is required for you to use the internet. This is how you send and receive information. It also serves as your computer’s “address”. The IP number looks like this – 106.185.21.243.

If you have a broadband or DSL connection your IP address rarely changes which make your computer more vulnerable. If you connect to the internet via dial up then you typically are assigned a new IP address every time you log on, but this doesn’t been you are not vulnerable to attack! Another issue is that with broadband connection you are likely to be on line for longer periods of time giving hackers more opportunity to attack you.

Hackers use “port scanning” software to hunt for for vulnerable computers with open ports using your computer’s IP address. They will then send malicious programs through these open ports onto your computer.

Another common way that hackers use to gain control of your computers is by sending out Trojan Viruses disguised as email attachments. Hackers typically send out these messages to 1000s of users with enticing headings and an attachment which they are hoping you will open. When the attachment is opened the virus loads itself onto your computer and allows the hacker to control your computer.

Hackers also bundle Trojan viruses into free downloads like screensavers which are commonly installed on home user’s machines. Illegal P2P networks also circulated large numbers of infected files.
Here are some steps you can take:

1) Make sure you are receiving the latest Window’s updates.
2) Have a good firewall installed.
3) Install a spyware removal tool get the spyware definitions up to date. Run a scan at least once a week or after being on line for a long period of time.
4) Install an anti virus program and keep the virus definitions up to date. Carry out a virus scan a least once a week.
5) Use a Spam Filter to stop dangerous email

Further actions you can take:
- Don’t open suspicious looking email messages especially if they have attachments.
- Be careful what free software you download. Only download from reputable sites like CNet’s Download.com.
- Remember to switch off your broadband connection if you are away from your computer for a long period of time. Get into the habit of switching your computer and broadband connection off at night time. This is especially relevant for wireless network users.

Why use Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal? There are several good reasons to protect you computer from Adware and Spyware programs by using Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal or similar programs, depending on your specific needs and requirements. If your computer is connected to the Internet, the risk of it being infected with harmful software is very high if you do not use protective programs, such as a Firewall and Anti-virus software. However, a Firewall and a standard Anti-virus pram is not enough to protect you from involuntarily installing Advertising-supported Software, so called Adware. It is very easy to be lured into accepting Adware. If you download music from the Internet, the risk is very high that these downloads include Adware as well, and even if you refrain completely from downloading music files from the Internet you can still unknowingly install an Adware program when your are doing nothing but looking at web pages. For example, if you by mistake click on a fake X instead of the real X on the top of one of those annoying pop-up adds, your computer can start downloading and installing harmful Adware without you even knowing it.

To stay clear from Adware, you need an Ad-Aware program, e.g. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal. Ad-Aware programs like Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal are designed to search your computer for any Adware programs and remove them. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will also alert you every time an attempt to install an Adware program is made. By using Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal, you will stop the malicious Adware at the gate and the harmful programs will not be able to infest your computer. Compared to Anti-Adware programs only capable of scanning your computer and removing already installed Adware, Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will provide you with a higher level of security since the Adware will be blocked before it manage to install it self.

Once a malicious Adware program has been installed, it will take control over your computer and is capable of automatically display commercials and advertising materials for you. It can sometimes be extremely annoying, such as multiple pop-up windows that are impossible to close, or it can be very cleverly disguised and blend in with other commercial messages on the Internet. Adware programs can also download and install advertising material to your computer without your consent. To avoid this, you need to install an Ad-Aware program, such as Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal.

Lavasoft develops many types of Ad-Aware programs to suit different types of users. Some Lavasoft programs can be downloaded for free, while other variants have to be purchased. If you start buy downloading a free version of Lavasoft Adware, you can always upgrade it later. Examples of popular Ad-Aware programs from Lavasoft Adware are Lavasoft Adware 6.0, Lavasoft Adware 6.0 Plus, Lavasoft Adware 6.0 Professional and Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal. As the name suggests, the Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal is very suitable if wish to protect your personal computer from Adware. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal is not indented for businesses or large organisations.

Adware programs are sometimes combined with Spyware programs, since the information about you gathered by the Spyware program makes it easier to target you with suitable advertisements. When your computer is infested with a Spyware program, all your actions will be monitored and information will be sent to the company or person in control of the Spyware. The data can include highly personal information such as long lists over all your online activities; visited websites, online purchases, all searches performed by search engines, etcetera. The information about you will then be gathered, stored and used without your knowledge or consent. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will safeguard you against Spyware as well as Adware.

It is worth mentioning that there are honest Adware programs on the Internet as well. The persons and companies behind these Adware programs do no try to deceive you into unknowingly installing the Adware program on your computer. Instead, the Adware is a way to make it possible for you to download a software program, such as a popular game, without having to pay for it. Instead, the money to cover development costs etcetera will come from the companies displaying advertisements while you use the program. When you no longer wish to use the free program, you can simply remove it together with the Adware.

Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal has been design specifically to suit the needs for private persons who wish to safeguard their own computers from malicious Adware. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will check your entire computer for Adware. Once an Adware is detected, Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will remove the Adware. Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal is also designed to alert you every time an attempt is made to install an Adware program on your computer. This means that Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal will not only clean your computer from existing Adware; it will also protect you from any new infestations in the future.

You can download Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal directly from the Internet. It is easy to install and you don’t have to reboot your computer, you can start scanning your computer as soon as the installation is finished. To keep an Ad-Aware program up to date, you need to update it regularly. For Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal, free updates are available online. You can even set Lavasoft Adware 6 0 Personal to update automatically as soon as an update becomes available.

Zone Labs is the most trusted name in Internet security, and with good reason. The Zone Labs products are effective at keeping computers protected from spyware, hackers and other Internet bad guys without clogging up your system.

They’re also easy to install and configure to meet your needs. Zone Labs’ products offer a range of services depending on what you need and want from an Internet protection program.

ZoneAlarm, the most basic firewall program offered by Zone Labs, can be downloaded for free and used for personal, non-business use.

ZoneAlarm Antivirus adds the Zone Labs triple-defense firewall, antivirus protection, e-mail security and protection for your wireless network.

Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm Anti-Spyware offers the same features as the antivirus program except with anti-spyware protection instead of antivirus.

The added power of ZoneAlarm Pro includes Zone Labs’ identity theft and privacy protection programs, e-mail security and anti-spyware.

The all-in-one solution from Zone Labs is ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, which includes the basic and triple defense firewalls, anti-spyware, antivirus, identity theft and privacy protection, anti-phishing and spam blocker, e-mail security, instant messenger security, parental controls and protection for wireless PCs.

You can also buy the instant messenger security and parental controls separately from Zone Labs in the product IMsecure Pro.

These products from Zone Labs can give you peace of mind as they protect your computer from a variety of problems you don’t want to have. Zone Labs can protect you from hackers, spam, viruses, identity theft and more. Stop these menaces before they get to your computer and your information, with a little help from Zone Labs.

Zone Labs is the trusted leader in Internet protection and personal firewall systems. More than 30 million computers worldwide are trusted to Zone Labs products. And it couldn’t be easier to protect your computer from all of the various threats that are out there when one Zone Labs product can do it all for you.

The Zone Labs products are easy to install and use but still very powerful. They allow customers to protect themselves without a lot of effort or thought on their part. Zone Labs also allows more knowledgeable users to fine-tune the settings on their products to give them exactly what they need from the firewall and Internet protection package.

If you need technical help when working with any product from Zone Labs, you can find support online, via e-mail and through the ZoneAlarm Support Center. Zone Labs is there with you to help make your Internet systems work for you and protect your computer in the best way possible.

There’s no better feeling than being able to get online and know that your computer is safe from viruses, hackers and identity thieves. Zone Labs can give you that kind of security.

Adware is present on many of the websites visited by internet users every day. Adware is ad supported computer software that permits the website owner or web host to display advertisements to visitors as they land on the website. Some types of adware software is capable of installing itself on your computer while you are visiting a site if you don’t have some sort of blocking feature in use to protect your computer from such no-permission installation. This ad supported software is often used to offset the costs of hosting a website or to offset the costs of the web designer or programmer that developed the website. Many webmasters can even use certain ad supported software to generate separate streams of income.

Not all adware software is the same. Malicious adware is software that gathers personal and identifiable information about visitors and their computers as they visit a website. These types of software are more commonly known as spyware. The information collected is often used to build marketing lists with, and this can result in your inbox being flooded with unsolicited advertisements. Malicious “spyware” is not only an invasion of your privacy because it collects information without your permission; this information can be sold or otherwise fall into the hands of identity thieves and other unscrupulous persons. You need to protect your computer and your personal information from this malicious adware so that you can safely surf the internet.

Avoiding Adware

Luckily, there are many software programs that have been developed to combat malicious adware or spyware. Much of anti-virus software that is available today features some adware detecting, containing, and cleansing capabilities. But the primary purpose for anti-virus software is to protect your computer from virus threats. Therefore most of the technology in them is focused towards thwarting viruses and not detecting the presence of adware. Firewalls, and pop-up blocker software offers added security and are also useful in combating malicious adware.

But today, anti-virus, firewalls, and pop-up blockers are not enough for detecting and combating against the intrusive and security risk presented by malicious software applications, and to prevent them from being installed on your computer while you are innocently surfing the internet. Without additional software, your computer and your personal information are at greater risk. But what can you do when adware does find its way onto your computer? To eliminate their risks, you need to cleanse them completely from your computer. Cleaning your cache and closing your web browser after you use the internet is always recommended, but this will not completely remove malicious spyware from your computer.

Cleaning Adware from your Computer
Sometimes even the best anti-virus software combined with the other software applications that are meant to alert you to the presence of adware and to offer you solutions, fail to detect the adware and it downloads and installs on your computer. Simply deleting temporary internet files will not completely remove any malicious adware that has installed itself on your computer, and it can continue to display unwanted ads to you when you open your browser, collect personal information and information about your computer, and can even track your surfing habits

Protect your computer and all of your information with software that has been specifically designed to catch, contain, and completely cleanse malicious adware from your computer. Ad Aware and Spybot are two such software applications that can be used to find and remove malicious adware from your computer. There are many other software choices designed to seek and eliminate malicious adware from your computer.

Protecting your identity online, reducing spam email, as well as preventing malicious adware from causing your computer to not function properly, makes getting software designed to combat malicious adware a smart choice.

These are some of the most powerful and popular spyware removers which are widely available. All of them are completely free for download from their official websites and for personal use.

Advanced Spyware Remover (ASR): This software from Evonsoft protects your system against and removes numerous malwares such as stealthy spyware, aggressive adware, system hijackers, tracking cookies, keyloggers, dialers, etc. It also scans and lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and System. The new version even includes a Quarantine Manager. Available for download free of cost at www.evonsoft.com/download.htm/

STOPzilla (www.stopzilla.com/): STOPzilla is very powerful in protecting against phishing and ID Theft. It features Real-Time Spyware and Adware protection, Integrated Cookie and History cleaning, Integrated Home Page Hijacker protection and a Popup protection. The ZILLAsmart technology automatically checks for updates on a daily basis, and support is free 24/7 via live chat, email or a toll free number.

AD-aware Personal (www.lavasoft.com/): A product from Lavasoft, this spyware removal software provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components b detecting known and unknown variants of malware by using the Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology. It scans fixed and removable drives, memory and Windows registry.

Spy Cleaner Lite (www.spycleaner.net/): Programs and applications that automatically install themselves on your system are identified and removed by Spy Cleaner. It scans for traces of recognized adware modules in the DAT files, registry and temporary Internet files. After the search, it provides you with a log file.

Spy-Ad Exterminator Free: The software scans for and deletes, ignores, or quarantines your system’s memory, hard drives, and registry for spyware, adware, worms, hijacks, keyloggers, IE Toolbars, etc. Has up to 20,000 malwares in database, which can be updated online.

Disspy Lite: The Disspy Lite scans memory, registry, cookies, files and folders and removes all detected malwares such as keyLoggers, Hijackers, Dialers, Spyware, Adware, Browser Helper Objects, Spyware cookies, aggressive advertising and other malware. All removed files are quarantined for restoration when needed, and users can choose to be alerted whenever a newer database version is available for download. Download available at www.h-desk.com/new/Download.12.0.html/

Free Spyware Scanner (www.spyscanner.net): This spyware remover has a huge database of spy components which infects the system, and offers remarkable features such as options for scanning your drives and Registry, updating online, and saving the last, best system set-up as a backup, and the option of saving log file of the scan result and file deletion for future reference.

AdDriller (www.cdmworld.com): AdDriller scans and cleans over 30,000 now malwares. It also includes features such as like active monitoring and HEX Viewers besides removing adware, spyware, malware, Trojans etc, and new features such as scheduling, scan depth, messenger services enable and disable.

Malware Sweeper (www.malwaresweeper.com/): This remover not only scans your registry and drives for known adware modules and Spywares, but for your active memory ad components, which are not stored on your hard drive and last only as long as the computer is powered up. It also removes bundled spyware components from Kazaa, Morpheus, audiogalaxy, grokster, Limewire, Imesh, Gnutella.

Computer systems across the world are constantly threatened by viruses and worms. These malwares are created by disgruntled or malicious programmers, who let loose their treacherous creations on unwary hosts. Oftentimes, the damage that is caused is immense. Due to the severity of the attacks a small cottage industry has grown up to protect systems from viruses and worms.

With a virus that spreads automatically, a huge number of computers can be infected through the Internet and can be very hard to control. Because of this, the virus is the greatest danger to the security of personal computers today.

Companies in the antivirus industry discover large numbers of viruses’ everyday. Scores of viruses are latent or dormant and continue to be present long before they are ever noticed. There are viruses that delete files, displays pop-ups, exchange the buttons of your mouse, uninstall Internet Explorer, they can even slow down your computer’s fan.

A computers efficiency is reduced tremendously due to viruses and if that wasn’t enough they also corrupt files as well as stored data. For that reason, it is imperative to locate and eliminate viruses before the damage occurs.

There are a couple of important precautionary measures you can take and that is:

1. Avoid opening e-mails from people you do not know.
2. Avoid downloading anything from websites that are not well known or trustworthy.

If you land on a website that is providing content that is possibly unlawful or improper you may well be at risk and you would certainly be better off avoiding it.

Another important step is to keep your operating system updated on a regular schedule to reduce the threat to your computer. The Microsoft.com website is a good place to keep track of security patches that have been created to plug the loopholes that viruses exploit.

Now an absolute must for your computer is a reliable antivirus suite. There are many good free anti-virus packages like Avast (avast.com) that are available, although it is best to get reputable antivirus software like Norton or McAfee to deal with viruses and worms.

A few other security measures for your computer are file protection, memory explorers and firewalls, although at times they can conflict with other software, confuse users, or use up scarce resources. It is always good a idea to listen to the advice of security experts to save your system from damages caused by viruses and worms.

Unfortunately, the majorities of people learn these lessons the hard way and realize the risks involved only after they suffered. If you can understand the risks involved, you can take on safety measures to guard your computer from these threats.

If you are like most people you don’t yet have spyware removal capabilities. You are doing more and more on the internet and you are starting to enjoy the ease and convenience of the increasing amount of services that you can receive in the comfort of your own home. You have also probably heard of viruses and malware like spyware and adware and you may have even gotten antivirus software thinking that this will protect your computer so that you can have peace of mind and continue to enjoy the internet for all of its great qualities.

Well that is great but I want to warn you that all antivirus software is not as comprehensive as it claims to be. That is it will protect your computer from internet borne viruses and probably worms but it often does not protect you from the spiders of spyware and adware. You may need to get something to perform spyware removal as well.

So what is the big deal anyway? What does spyware do that is so bad? Well let me explain. Spyware is just what its name tells you, software that spies. It is created by internet deviants as well as some companies that you would otherwise think are upstanding to crawl your computer and gain information. The reason you need spyware removal is that the information could be things like usernames and passwords to different accounts including banks and other money user accounts which is obviously a security threat to your livelihood and are mostly sought by deviants looking to steal identities. However the information may be more subtle than that including your internet browsing and search histories, or purchase records, or email addresses. All things that are less threatening but sometimes very private information that may help them to target you in future sales.

How does it do this? Well there are many ways and most of them are very clever and designed to be undetectable by the typical internet surfer. They gain access to your hard drive through a variety of methods which are often unknowingly allowed by user “click-throughs.” They then insert code at various spots on your computer often in your computer registry. This code not only causes unwanted export of information but also can clog up your registry causing your computer to slow down, freeze, or otherwise not run as smoothly. So go get yourself equipped for spyware removal and be safe!

Whether you run anti-virus and anti-spyware or not, your computer can still be infected. This is due to the ever evolving nature of the internet allowing new innovations for good and bad. Now that your computer is infected, what can you do?

There are several things you can do. One of them would be to format your had drive. This is the most time consuming and costly method. You will lose all your files and it will take you a very long time to re-install all your programs. This path should only be taken if there is no other course of action available, and if there is a deep infection.

If the infection is less severe there are several things you can do. You can clean up your hard drive with anti-virus and anti-spyware software. There are many free programs out there that will do the job.

Once you have these programs you need to run a scan to determine where the infection is. Once the infection is located there are one of two things you can do. You can either quarantine the infection, or you can delete it completely. Deleting it would be the more effective option as it ensures you don’t accidently use the file again. An important part of running these programs is keeping them upto-date. They need to be updated regularly to be able to combat the new viruses and spyware that pop-up on a daily basis.
A boot-time scan is recommended as a good course of action to remove your infection. Should you continue to experience slower PC speeds, you could try using a virus scanner to not only scan your hard drive, but prevent your PC from getting more spyware.

Usually with spyware, once you have even a few files infected, they spread like a virus and attempt to propogate themselves. It’s important you have a virus scanner to not only delete old spyware, but prevent new spyware from popping up. Avast is great for this.

Keeping your computer 100% free from viruses and spy-ware is difficult but following the procedures above you can continue to enjoy the use of your computer.

The term, “virus”, in computer technology, refers to a self replicating application that spreads by making copies of itself by inserting into other programs, other executables or documents, and when executed begins to perform harmful actions on the system. All computer viruses are deliberately created, not always malicious and some of them may be benign and simply annoying.

Non-Memory Resident and Memory Resident Viruses:

Non-Memory resident viruses, when they are executed, immediately look for other hosts that can be infected. When they infect these targets, they transfer control to the application program they infected. A non-resident virus has a finder module and a replication module. The finder module, once it finds a new file to infect, calls upon the replication module to infect that file.

Memory-Resident virus stays in the memory and do not look for hosts to infect when they are executed. It stays active in the background after its host program is terminated, and infects files as soon as they are opened or accessed by other programs or the operating system. It does have the replication module like the non-memory resident virus, but without the finder module.

Types of Computer Viruses:

File Viruses: These types of viruses are the most common, and mostly infect open files and program libraries on an operating system. The virus functions by inserting itself into a host file, modifies it in such a way that the virus is executed when the file is opened. They are also known as left viruses. Today, there are known viruses infecting all kinds of executables of standard DOS: batch command files (BAT), loadable drivers (SYS, including special purpose files IO.SYS and MS- DOS.SYS) and binary executables (EXE, COM). There are also viruses targeting executables of other operating systems – Windows 3.x, Windows95/NT, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, including the VxD drivers of Windows 3.x and Windows95.

Macro viruses: Macros are used in most word processing programs such as Microsoft Office in order to automate or simplify recurring tasks in documents. Macro viruses are those viruses that use the application’s own macro programming language to distribute themselves, in which an unwanted sequence of actions is performed automatically when the application is started or something else triggers it. These macro viruses may inflict damage to the document or to other computer software but are relatively harmless, and are often spread as an e-mail virus.

Boot Viruses: These were one of the most common viruses prevalent during the early and mid 1990s, when the use of diskettes was popular. These viruses infect or substitute their own code for either the DOS boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR), which controls the boot sequence of the PC. The MBR is executed every time a computer is booted so the virus will also be loaded into memory on every startup and spreads to every disk that the system reads. They are typically very difficult to remove, and most antivirus programs cannot clean the MBR while Windows is running. So, bootable antivirus disks are needed to fix boot sector viruses.

Script viruses: They are a division of file viruses, written in a variety of script languages such as VBS, JavaScript, BAT, PHP, HTML etc. They can form a part of multi-component viruses or infect other scripts such as Windows or Linux command and service files. If the file format, such as HTML, allows the execution of scripts, they can infect it.

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