Computer Virus and Properties of Computer Virus
January 2, 2008 – 3:52 pmIntroduction to Computer Virus:-
Computer Viruses are small software programs designed to ruin computer’s functionality without any prior knowledge or permission of the user. An infected computer can affect another computer if its host is taken to the uninfected computer. There are several modes of computer virus transmission. It can easily be sent over the Internet or by carrying it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive.
Viruses damage computers by deleting files, infecting programs, or reformatting the hard disk. Some of then can just replicate and strengthen their presence by presenting text, video, audio messages. Such viruses often cause erratic behavior and lead to system crashes.
The more a virus replicates unnoticed, the more it gets successful in its aim. Computer viruses generally follow two methods to avoid recognition:
• By encrypting their code to escape detection.
• By disabling the options to view macros
Properties of Computer Virus :-
With a plethora of computer viruses flooding the cyberspace today, it has become extremely necessary for computer savvys to be fully armed and ready against their attacks before they wreak havoc.
Outlined below are different properties a virus shows. However, not all the computer viruses have common properties.
Polymorphic: Some viruses have an ability to change their code. This means a virus can carry several amounts of similar variants. Email viruses that keep on changing the subject or body of the message to prevent recognition are believed to have same properties.
Memory or non memory resident: A virus is either memory resident where the virus is first loaded into memory and infects a computer subsequently or non memory resident where the virus code runs each time a file is opened.
Stealth: The stealth virus first attaches itself to files on the computer and then attacks the computer.
Transmissible: Computer viruses are small software programs which can carry other similar viruses, thereby making the virus dangerous. The primary virus takes a shelter behind the other or gain assistance to infect a particular section of the computer.
Permanence: Some viruses are able to ruin the functionality of different parts of the computer such as CMOS battery or master boot record. If a computer is formatted and the infected application or program is still on a back up disk, the virus can easily re-infect the computer.
Viruses can affect files or applications in numerous ways. They usually attack .com, .exe, .sys, .bin, .pif or any other data files. Viruses have an ability to infect any file and often seek for executable files or data files including word or excel document to replicate.
Running an antivirus protection program is the most convenient and a reliable way to remove computer viruses of all kinds. A few users also use other aspects of the computer to detect the presence of virus or other malware matter.
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