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. It is typically harmful to the cell or body in which it lives, and is the cause of many illnesses and diseases.
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. Well basically, a computer virus is a harmful computer program which will damage files or your computer, and which is able to duplicate and spread itself within a computer or computer network. 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. 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. A computer virus can spread itself through files and documents; such as word-processing documents, spreadsheets, emails, computer programs etc. It can spread itself through removable storage devices such as memory sticks and floppy disks, it can spread itself through the Internet and through local computer networks. It is hard to detect because it is hidden and it can be unwittingly spread to other computers by the computer user.
A computer virus is comparable to a human virus in that it causes illness to its host. The amount of damage caused by a ‘digital virus’ is dependant upon what it has been instructed to do. Some words used to identify various viruses are 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.
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