Although viruses are different from computer worms and Trojan horses, they have the ability to carry viruses and deposit them onto a computer. Here are some of the symptoms of an attack by a virus or a Trojan horse:
- One of the contacts in the computer user’s address book mentions that they received an e-mail from the user that they don’t remember sending. The e-mail may contain a link, or it came with an attachment with extensions such as .scr, .bat, .vbs, or .exe.
- After opening an attachment from an e-mail (especially with an extension listed above), there is a sudden drag on performance of the computer, or dialog boxes and error messages begin to appear.
- The computer begins to operate as if someone else is controlling it remotely.
- Software that the user did not install on the computer may suddenly appear.
- The hard disk may be reformatted, which will delete programs and files.
- Everyone in the user’s address book receives an e-mail with the infected file.
- All the free space on a hard disk is taken up after an infected file replicates itself.
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