Read More About Computer Virus

Before understanding what a computer virus is, 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). Microorganisms such as viruses, are only able to divide within another living cell. It is the cause of many illnesses and diseases and is destructive to the cell or body in which it lives.

The word virus comes from Latin and literally means ‘poison’ and that is basically what it is - a ‘poison’, able to reproduce itself within another cell or body and an example of an illness caused by a virus is the flu. They are both able to duplicate and spread within a host and whereas a human virus will damage body cells, a computer virus will damage files within the computer. The computer virus can be concealed in a program, file or document and could be anywhere on your laptop.

Criminals, and other talented idiots with nothing better to do with their time, create these viruses and spread them to other people’s computers. 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. Computer viruses can affect every part of the computer preventing it from working properly. As well as through removable storage devices such as memory sticks and floppy disks, it can spread itself through the Internet and through local computer networks. It can be unknowingly spread to other computers by the computer user since it is hidden and therefore hard to detect.

Akin to a human virus that makes a person feel unwell, the computer virus works in a similar fashion within a computer. A ‘digital virus’ will literally make your computer ’sick’ and just what each type will do to your computer depends on what it has been programmed to do - some can be very harmful, while others are created to simply annoy. 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.