A virus can be designed to do several different things. Typically, the software is designed to spread to other computers and reach as many machines as possible. An example of this is when a virus attacks your email and sends out a link to all of your contacts. When one of your contacts clicks the link, they expose themselves to the same virus. Some viruses are built to delete critical files, while others attack the performance of the computer. Spyware is also considered malware, but tracks your usage on the computer and tries to push you toward malicious sites. Ransomware is the most invasive type of malware. This software specifically targets sensitive personal files/data and then requests a ransom to release the files back to you. Typically, we recommend wiping a hard drive that is infected with ransomware, although there are other solutions we can explore.