Living in the digital age, we all face the threat of exposing our private information every time we access the Internet, which is why it is extremely important that people know how to protect themselves from digital threats. To protect themselves, people need to be aware of the basic types of malicious software, how they spread, and how to fight them. Generic virus is software designed to damage a computer, replicate itself, and spread to other computers. Although viruses can spread via CDs and USB drives, the most common way to distribute them is via email attachments. (Brown 20-21) Email viruses are known to look for an infected person's email account and send a copy of themselves to everyone in the person's contact list. Using clever disguises such as love messages or other seemingly innocent mail, the virus tricks users into downloading itself onto their computer, allowing the virus to wreak havoc and continue to multiply and infect more computers. (Greenberg 2) An example of one of the most harmful viruses to date would be the “I Love You” virus. This virus manipulated Microsoft's Outlook Express email program to send itself to the email contact list of infected computers, disguised as an innocent message with an attachment declaring love to the senders. After a user downloaded the attachment, their computer was infected and the virus replicated again. So what exactly did the virus do? “I Love You” would simply delete the digital photographs and hide the MP3 audio files. While this may not seem like an incredibly threatening virus, it is being taken very seriously. A State Department spokesperson announced that after finding several computers...... middle of paper......1B." Ecommerce Times. 05/05/2000: 01-03. Web. October 24, 2011 .Littman, Jonathan. The Fugitive Game online with Kevin Mitnick, the inside story of the great cyberchase 1st. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and company, 1996. Print.No, Katherine Lotta: Q&A with the security guru. Mikko Hypponen, part 2." TechNewsWorld. 24/-8/2011: n. page. Web. November 2, 2011. ."Rogue Security Software I Fake Anti-Virus Alerts I Scareware." Np, nd Web. 26 October 2011. Virus Trojan, nd Web. 24 October 2011. “The 'worm' that could bring down the Internet", 07/09/2011 2011. .