Computer Virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. A virus can spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the target computer, for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computer by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.
Important Facts Related to Computer Virus
* The crepper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, in the early 1970s.
* The Reaper Program was created to delete creeper.
* The actual term ‘virus was first used in David Gerorld’s 1972 novel, when HARLE was one.
* A program called “Elk Cloner” Was the first computer virus to appear ‘in the wild’ that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created.
* It attached itself to the APPLE DOS3.3, operating system and spread via floppy disk.
* The first PC virus in the wild was a boost sector virus “Brain” created in 1986.
* With the spread of personal computer, traditional computer viruses emerged in 1980.Bulleting board-driven software sharing contributed directly to the spread of Trojan horse programs. Shareware and boot left software were equally common vectors for viruses on BB5.
* Macro Viruses have become common since the mid 1990. Most of these viruses are written in the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as word and Excel and Spread throughout Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets.
* Viruses that spread using cross site scripting were first reported in 2002 and were academically demonstrated in 2005. There have been multiple instances of the cross site scripting viruses in the wild, exploiting websites such as My Space and Yahoo.
Antiviruses Software and Other Preventive Measures.
Antivirus software can destroy the viruses by finding them. The antivirus software uses two common methods in order to detect viruses.
1 By using the Virus Signature Definitions list.
2 By using Heusristics Algoritham.
Some antivirus programs are capable of ‘on the fly’ scanning of received e-mails along with scanning of the open files. This process is known as ‘on-Access’ scanning.
Antivirus software does not alter the efficiency of the host software for the communication of viruses. These software need to be updated regularly so that the new viruses can be detected.
The loss incurred by the viruses can also be negated by the regular backup of data on other mediums. If any data get misplaced due to this virus then we can retrack it by backup.
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