Table of Contents
What is a Virus? .............................................1
HOW A VIRUS INFECTS YOUR SYSTEM: .............................2
HOW DOES A VIRUS SPREAD? .....................................3
BIGGEST MYTH: "I BUY ALL OF MY PROGRAMS ON CD ROM FROM THE STORE". STORE BOUGHT SOFTWARE NEVER CONTAINS VIRUSES.... 3
INFECTION (DAMAGES) ..........................................4
PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER, NOW!! ................................ 5
A virus is an independent program that reproduces itself. It can attach itself to other programs and make copies of itself (i.e., companion viruses).
It can damage or corrupt data, or lower the performance of your system by using resources like memory or disk space. A virus can be annoying or it can cost you lots of cold hard cash. A virus is just another name for a class of programs.
They do anything that another program can. The only distinguishing characteristic is the program has ability to reproduce and infect other programs. Is a computer virus similar to a human virus? Below is a chart that will show the similarities.
Comparing Biological Viruses & Human Viruses
Human Virus Effects Attack specific body cells' Modify the genetic information of a cell other than previous one. It performs tasks. New viruses grow in the infected cell itself. An infected program may not exhibit symptoms for a while. Not all cells with which the virus contact are infected. Viruses can mutate and thus cannot clearly be diagnosed. Infected cells aren't infected more than once by the same cell.
Computer Virus Effects
Attack specific programs (*.com,*.exe) Manipulate the program: The infected program produces virus programs. The infected program can work without error for a long time. Program can be made immune against certain viruses. Virus program can modify themselves & possibly escape detection this way. Programs are infected only once by most viruses.
There are