What Is A 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). A small organism, a virus is only able to reproduce itself within another living cell or body. 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. How does this relate to computers? The virus can be anywhere on your computer, concealed within a program, file or document.
Criminals, and other talented idiots with nothing better to do with their time, create these viruses and spread them to other people’s computers. The sole reason for doing this is to cause havoc. 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). Files and documents can have a computer virus spread through them such as word-processing documents, spreadsheets, emails, computer programs etc. It can spread itself through the Internet and through local computer networks, as well as through removable storage devices such as memory sticks and floppy disks. Because it is hidden, it is hard to detect and it can be spread to other computers, unknowingly, by the computer user.
Well, it works similarly to viruses (like the flu) that make a person sick. Some are very destructive while others cause minor irritations, making your computer seem ‘under the weather’. Macro Viruses, Email Viruses and Trojan Horses. Taking appropriate safety precautions with regard to your computer will be easier once you have an understanding of what computer viruses are and how they work.
