Virus

A virus is a computer program that performs tasks without your permission or consent. It may be harmless but annoying or it may be highly damaging. There are even viruses that steal personal and private information from computers and lead to thieves stealing people’s identity. There are several common ways a virus gets into a computer:

1) while the computer is connected to the Internet

2) as an e-mail attachment that is opened

3) the sharing of storage media, such as a disk, that is infected with a virus already

Therefore, one of the most important ways to protect and care for your computer is to make that you have an anti-virus software program installed on it and that it is up-to-date. If you do not have an anti-virus software program on your computer, you, as a SFSU student, may download from SFSU’s Division of Information Technology website a free copy of Network Associates’ VirusScan software. The instructions for how to download, install, and update the software program is on that webpage as well.