What Is A Computer Virus

Before we can comprehend how a computer virus works, it is important to realize what a virus does when it attacks the human body.

A small organism, a virus is only able to reproduce itself within another living cell or body.

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. How does this relate to computers? Usually the computer virus is hidden within a program, file or document which means it can be anywhere on your pc.

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 the Internet and through local computer networks, it can multiply 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.

It works in a similar way to human viruses (like influenza) by making a person unwell.

The amount of damage caused by a 'digital virus' is dependent upon what it has been instructed to do. In order to describe different types of computer viruses a wide variety of names have been generated, some examples are as follows : It will be easier to protect your computer against viruses, once you have an understanding of the workings of computer viruses.