Free Antivirus Roundup

In this day, it is absolutely essential to have an up-to-date virus program running on your system if you are connected to the internet. Even if you do not care about protecting your PC, you could be unknowingly spreading viruses on your PC. Viruses user your Email programs to send themselves to those in your address book. A friend, relative or associate might open an Email sent from you by a virus and suddenly be infected. This can be embarrassing.

Here are some of the most popular free Antivirus programs:

AVG - One of our favorites.

Blink - Free one year subscription for personal use. Provides zero-day protection.

AntiVir - The private and individual use is completely free of charge!

avast! Home Edition - MQuick and easy free antivirus download.

Trend Micro - Free online virus scan.

There are many different types of viruses. The following includes a brief description of the most common

Boot Sector: This virus infects the System-area of a floppy or hard drive. They are activated when a user boots from an infected disk.

File Infector Viruses: Most of these viruses reside in the memory of a computer and infect a programs' .exe and .com files.

Master Boot Record Viruses: Similar to a Boot Sector viruses, these viruses infect the Master Boot Record and prevent your system from booting.

Multi-partite viruses: Infect both the Boot record and program files.

Macro viruses: Macro Viruses are prevalent in corporate environments where office suites are used. They use a program's code to infect data files.

Trojan Horses: These viruses do not replicate themselves. Instead, they usually pose as a harmless file that is downloaded from the web. These programs rely on secrecy and can result in the theft or destruction of data files. This type of virus is commonly picked up from peer to peer file sharing programs.

Worms: Worms replicate themselves without using a host file and can spread very quickly across the internet by releasing documents it has infected.

Zero-Day Attack: A zero day attack is more of an exploitation than a virus. Hackers that know of a vulnerability will attack a system that has an exploit without a patch.