What is Computer Virus?
Before understanding what a computer virus is, it is necessary to understand what a virus is when it occurs in a living form (such as a human body, an animal, or a plant). Microorganisms such as viruses, are only able to divide within another living cell. Many illnesses and diseases are caused by it and it is characteristically damaging to the cell or body that it inhabits.
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 virus can be anywhere on your computer, concealed within a program, file or document.
There are some clever individuals who have nothing worthwhile to do with their time that create and spread these computer viruses. Causing havoc is the main reason for doing this. Similar to a common virus like the flu (which spreads from person to person), the computer virus has the ability to spread and ‘infect’ other computers, files or documents. The computer can be prevented from working correctly by a computer virus. 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. Because it is hidden, it is hard to detect and it can be spread to other computers, unknowingly, by the computer user.
What exactly does a computer virus do? Some are very destructive while others cause minor irritations, making your computer seem ‘under the weather’. Examples of terms used to describe different types of computer viruses include Macro Viruses, Email Viruses and Trojan Horses. The first step to learning what to do about viruses is understanding the basics of what they are and how to be entirely control the safety of your computer.