Among the negatives related to computer usage is the risk of contracting a virus. A computer virus is like all viruses, exposure is the only way the computer will catch a virus. If, there is no exposure there will be no virus! Exposure is the result of not having a good AntiVirus Protection program running in real time to prevent Inbox Spam. The secret to security is a good AntiVirus Protection program, which catches Spam keeping it from our Inbox.

Another serious virus concern is the risk hidden in Instant Messaging. We need a security program capable of finding IM Trojans attached to Instant Messages. The IM Trojan can do many things such as control our chat sessions, send the Trojan to the people on our list of contacts and even forward Denial of Service attacks to others using our computer. Run a scan before sending instant messaging to others so you do not spread a virus to other computers, inadvertently

Antivirus Protection programs such as Symantec/Norton AntiVirus, Trend Micro PCcillin and similar total security programs can run in real time. This means the protection begins when the computer goes online. It is a good idea to scan your entire computer system at least once daily and anytime you feel insecure about a website visited.

A virus is a computer program hidden within another program. The virus replicates itself and inserts copies into programs and files on the computers of others destroying their data. There are two main viruses called macro viruses and worms. All such viruses are man made and they spread among computers just as viral diseases spread among humans or animals.

Macro viruses are pieces of code embedded by their creator in a data file. The technique is a legitimate technique used by programmers for legitimate reasons, in word processing programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel's spreadsheet programs. Dishonest people for illegal and harmful purposes often use the application techniques applied for good reasons for bad reasons. They use them to attack computers of others leaving viruses and other destructive applications.

If our computer has a virus, we can pass the virus to others through a common practice called sharing documents. A simple document infected with a virus and shared with another person infects the other person's computer with the same virus. Notice when running an Antivirus Protection Scan, the program will scan all documents in the computer, My Documents and documents saved elsewhere. Emails sometimes have a macro virus or a Trojan embedded in them. Opening Emails, which include a list of prior addresses, is risky without a virus scan. Some Email programs scan all incoming and outgoing Emails automatically.