1. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved What is a computer virus? A computer virus is a piece of software or programming code.

2. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved What does a virus do? Just like a biological virus, a computer virus makes copies of itself. Computer viruses don’t damage the computer, but they can damage your data and files.

3. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved How are viruses spread? They can be downloaded from some web pages. If a webpage is offering free games or ringtones to download and it seems too good to be true – it probably is. If you download the file, there might be a virus hidden inside it.

4. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved How are viruses spread? They can be caught from opening attachments or clicking on links in emails. If you get an email from someone you don’t know, don’t ever click on a link in the mail and don’t open any attachments.

5. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved How are viruses spread? If someone has a virus on their computer and they save a file onto a floppy disk or USB stick, the virus might also be saved onto the media. If you borrow your friend’s USB stick and it has a virus on it, you could transfer it to your computer.

6. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved How can you get rid of a virus? Make sure that you have anti- virus software on your computer. Get the anti-virus software to scan your hard disk. If a virus is found, the software will either remove it or quarantine it.

7. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved Why should you update? Because new viruses are being written every single day, your anti- virus software soon gets out of date. It might not recognise new viruses or know what to do with them.

8. © www.teach-ict.com All Rights Reserved How do you update? You should update your anti-virus software at least once a week. This is free to do, just go to the software’s main website and download any patches