A virus is the biggest enemy of gaming, whether it is viruses found on some website, or adware that comes with a download file - it can interfere with the computer running, and even disable it (destroy the system)
Viruses like Michaelangelo, ILOVEYOU, CIH, MyDoom and Blaster then appeared and attacked many computers, they were able to damage and even delete important information.
"CIH" did damage to drives like bushes and BIOS of many computers.
People saw it as a financial potential, so they used it to get rich.
The first "ransom" software came out in 89 called "AIDS" - the software encrypted users' files (locked them) and for opening them they were required to pay "ransom".
Full of people, and most of the gaming is exposed to viruses. People can send you links that have a virus that can hack into your account and will directly buy a virtual currency in a visa that you have in your account like Steam, etc.
Option to transfer files via email (it can also be a virus).
A script file that you open and can easily ruin your hard disk in a second.
As I said and most of you probably know, a virus is not manually erasable (most are not files) - they are encrypted within files which means you cannot delete it. You must delete the file on which it was planted.
For that, a software called Anti-Virus was invented, yes an original name
The antivirus was brought to us in 1987, but that antivirus could not scan more than one file, until in 1988, a more enhanced antivirus came to us that could scan several files in one operation, maybe you know one of them? Avira, NOD32 (ESET), Avast and more.
Here is a short video I found on YouTube that illustrates the principle of how the virus works:
