The idea behind virut is to make a spambot that hides within the system - but the code writers are not quite up to scratch. At a penny for 10 spam e-mails it will add up
It can be caught before it runs, I have had some cases where it was stopped dead in its tracks and there was no harm to the computer, but once it has infected one file then it is game over
These are the known infection vectors
DO NOT backup any applications or installers and
DO NOT backup any files with the following extensions:
- .exe
- .scr
- .htm
- .html
- .xml
- .zip
- .rar
- .doc
- .jpg
- .pdf
If a file is not run then it will not get infected, but once run it is open season. Virut is mainly spread by infected P2P downloads, cracks and keygens, keep away from those and you survival chances increase greatly