What is a Computer Virus?
Understanding what a virus is when it occurs in a living form (such as a human body, an animal, or a plant) is necessary before we can understand what a computer virus is. Viruses are microorganisms that can only multiply within another living cell. Poor health occurs as a result of a viral infection and body cells are destroyed or damaged as a result.
Able to reproduce itself within another cell or body, the word virus is Latin for ‘poison’ and that is basically what it is – a ‘poison’, an example of an illness caused by a virus is the common cold. Whereas the human virus damages living cells, the computers files and hard disc can be harmed by the computer virus. The computer virus can be anywhere on your pc, usually hidden within a program, file or document.
These viruses are produced by felons, and other knowledgeable cretins with nothing better to do with their time except spread viruses to other people’s computers. Creating trouble and damage for every pc user is the sole purpose of this activity. The computer virus has the ability to spread and ‘contaminate’ other computers, files or documents, similar to a common virus like the flu (which spreads from person to person). Computer viruses can affect every part of the computer preventing it from working properly. As well as through removable storage devices such as memory sticks and floppy disks, it can spread itself through the Internet and through local computer networks. As it is concealed and difficult to identify, it can be inadvertently passed on to other computer users.
What exactly does a computer virus do? Some are very destructive while others cause minor irritations, making your computer seem ‘under the weather’. A wide variety of names have been made up, in order to describe different types of computer viruses, some examples are as follows : Understanding the basics of what viruses are is the first step to learning what to do about them, and how to be completely in control of your computer’s security.
