viruses

Viruses

What is a virus?

A virus is a type of malware (malicious software)

that when it is opened on your computer, it

copies itself onto other programs, data files which then gets the other programs infected.

They do very

harmful things to your computer such as stealing harddisk space, taking private information destroying data,and many other things.

By Swarani Roy

Why do People Create Viruses?People create viruses simply for enjoyment or they take plaeasure in watching things blow up or to get a hold of your personal information.

Three Most Common Types of Viruses

Email Viruses

The only way an email virus spreads is as an attachment to in an email message. It usually copies itself automatically by sending itself to every contact on the victim's contact list. Few viruses don't even need to be double clicked, they start spreading when you view your message in the preview pane of your inbox.

Trojan HorsesA trojan horse is a computer program that says to be one thing such as a game, but instead when you open it, it will cause damage to your computer such as erasing your hard disk. Although, trojan horses can not be copied automatically.

Worms A worm is a small piece of software that uses security holes and computer networks to copy itself which then scans the network for another machine that has a particular security hole. The worm then copies itself to the machine using the security hole and starts replicating from there.

Virus HistoryTraditional computer viruses were seen in the 80's and became more known because of the spread of personal computers, computer bulletin boards, and floppy disks. Early viruses used to be pieces of a code inserted into a larger program which when the user downloads or runs the program, it loads itself onto memory to find other programs on the disk. Once it ifnds a program, it alters the program so that the virus's code adds into the program. Then the virus releases the "real program" while the user has no idea that the virus was even running and since the virus has replicated itself onto more programs , the next time the user uses those programs it infects other programs .