Viruses
Virus
Computer viruses are named viruses due to their ability to pass its components via computer to computer procedure, which is similar to the nature of biological viruses passed on from human to human. A virus has the ability to attach itself to a program or data to be able to attack other computers. As the virus launch itself it infects other program and files saved inside the computer.
Computer viruses are written by programmers whose aim is to infest other computers and damage it.
Some people find it fulfilling to have the ability to create destructive programs such as viruses. This psychological issue is similar to that of arsonists and people fond of vandalism.
History
In the year 1980 the personal computers (PCs) became very popular among many households and businesses, which were more commonly used for gaming purposes. The growing PC industry led to the development of viruses that later on became widely known in the late 1980’s.
Later on computer bulletin boards were introduced. Computer users accessed bulletin boards via dial up modem to download different types of programs. Productivity and gaming software applications saturated the bulleting boards for downloads. Trojan horse was initially introduced through these bulletin boards. The Trojan horse virus was often mistaken as a gaming application until installed. This virus can erase your data files and damage all your system content. Many users were immediately informed regarding the virus, which stopped it from spreading and infecting more computers.
Floppy disks were rampantly used in the 1980’s. Some computers did not have hard disk then that all programs including its operating system are loaded from the floppy disk. Many virus programmers took advantage of this set-up and created the first self-replicating program.
Viruses were originally attached as pieces of codes bundled in a larger legitimate program. The virus simultaneously launches itself with the infected legit program. The virus will then start looking for other programs or data to infect. This cycle will continue to repeat itself and infect more and more data inside your computer. After spreading phase or infection phase of the virus the attack phase follows.
Attack phase is the stage when the virus begins to damage your files. It may erase or prohibit data access at a certain point. This phase is usually triggered in many different ways depending on how it was programmed. The triggering point can be the number of infected files or a certain date from the time it initiated its infection phase.
Infection behavior
Viruses infect and behave in two ways when they are executed. Nonresident viruses instantly seek for a data or program to infect when it is launched and take control of the infected application.
Resident viruses behave differently when executed. This type of virus attaches itself into the memory when launched and takes control of the infected program. The virus remains active by running as a background application then infects other data and applications launched by the user.
Nonresident viruses
Nonresident viruses are made of two types of modules. The finder module which initiates the infection phase via searching for prospect files to infect. The replication module, wherein the virus replicates itself to infect a file.
Resident viruses
Like nonresident viruses, resident viruses have replication module. However, replication module in a resident virus does not attach itself or infect a particular file, instead the virus place the replication module in the memory when it is executed. Every time the computer executes an operation the replication module will be triggered and will run in the background infecting all executed programs and files.
About the Author
Jackie Chung is a freelance writer who the author of articles such as Trojan Horse Viruses, Computer Viruses, and Computer Virus Education Visit Viruses.
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