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) before understanding what a computer virus is. 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. Cell damage occurs in the human body causing illness, whereas in the computer, files are damaged and the computer malfunctions. The computer virus can be concealed in a program, file or document and could be anywhere on your laptop.
There are some clever individuals who have nothing worthwhile to do with their time that create and spread these computer viruses. The sole purpose of this activity is to create trouble and damage for every pc user. Other computers, files or documents can be ‘infected’ by the computer virus, similar to a common virus like the flu (which spreads from one person to another). The computer can be prevented from working correctly by a computer virus. 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. It can be unknowingly spread to other computers by the computer user since it is hidden and therefore hard to detect.
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. Understanding the basics of what viruses are is the first step to learning what to do about them, and how to be completely in control of your computer’s security.
