The purpose of this report is to provide an extended definition of a Computer Virus.

This report will give an overview of a computer virus to include:

The different classes of computer viruses

How you can protect your computer from being infected with a computer virus

A virus is a piece of programming code usually disguised as something else that causes some unexpected and usually undesirable event. A virus is often designed so that it is automatically spread to other computer users. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note, as downloads, or be present on a diskette or CD. The source of the e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette you've received is often unaware of the virus. Some viruses carry out their effect as soon as their code is executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses are playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday, Betty!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. Which would mean you would b

   FTP traffic from the Internet (file downloads)

File infectors. Some file infector viruses attach themselves to program files, usually selected .COM or .EXE files. Some can infect any program for which execution is requested, including .SYS, .OVL, .PRG, and .MNU files. When the program is loaded, the virus is loaded as well. Other file infector viruses arrive as wholly-contained programs or scripts sent as an attachment to an e-mail note.

Creation. Until recently, creating a virus required knowledge of a computer programming language. Today anyone with basic programming knowledge can create a virus. Typically, individuals who wish to cause widespread, random damage to computers create viruses.

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