Virus

To explain it in a basic way, a computer virus is a software that was made with the malicious intent of harming the machine in which is running or to the user. The author can have many reasons to code a virus, sometimes just for fun, but most times it is for stealing useful information from the computers or to get money from the user.

There many programs made to defend a computer from virus attacks, called antivirus. Many persons have antivirus software in their devices, both free and private software, but there is another problem that enables virus attacks to be succesful: the lack of common sense. A lot of people do not have idea of the potential consequences of many of their acts in the internet, nor a rich digital culture. For example, putting your personal information on a suspicious website and downloading files from an unknown source are common causes of virus, and many people do this without worrying.

The consequences are vast and depend on the intelligence and creativity of the virus' author. It can go from obtaining the password of the main server of a company, to hijacking the camera of a device and recording everthing that happens around it. A common practice of virus software is to block the machine use from its owner, and display a message in which the hacker says that if he doesn't receive a high quantity of money in an established time, all the data in the computer will be deleted forever. This is known as a ransomware program.