An Introduction to Computer Viruses

Abstract

The computer virus is a problem to computer users at all levels including students, home users, corporate users, system administrators, corporate managers and even the anti-virus manufacturers. The viruses are written by people with malefic intentions to trouble the innocent users.

There are many types of viruses are boot sector viruses, file viruses, worms, Trojan horses, macro viruses etc. Each of these has many different variants. The older viruses were transmitting through floppies. Some older viruses like boot sector viruses are very rare nowadays as nobody boots from floppies. The modern day viruses transmit more through networks and emails. Macro viruses are most prevalent in the current days.

The viruses generally try to exploit the loopholes of the operating system, application programs, windows sockets and even anti-virus programs. Some viruses are so dangerous that they can make the system completely unusable and irreparable.

Keywords: Computer Virus, Virus Scanners, Anti-virus