Entry 7 : VIRUS

WHAT IS VIRUS?

In human, a virus is known to be a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. However, virus is not only applicable in us, human beings. It can also be seen in the cyber world. Computer virus are written by mean people! Computer virus are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another .

A virus is inactive until you execute an infected program or application OR start your computer from a disk that has infected system files. Once a virus is active, it loads into your computer's memory and may save itself to your hard drive or copies itself to applications or system files on disks you use.

Some viruses are programmed specifically to damage the data on your computer.It might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk. Other viruses make your computer's system behave erratically or crash frequently.

HOW DO VIRUS SPREAD?

Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open email attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it. Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files. Computer virus can also be spread through downloads in Internet. They can be hidden in illicit software or other files or programs you might download.

Viruses begin to work and spread when you start up the program or application of which the virus is present. The virus may be programmed to attach to other applications, disks or folders. It may infect a network if given the opportunity. Viruses behave in different ways. Some viruses stay active only when the application it is part of is running. Turn the computer off and the virus is inactive. Other viruses will operate every time you turn on your computer after infecting a system file or network.

Example of a Computer Virus - The "I Love You" Virus

The author of this particular virus was a computer student in a college in the Philippines and wrote the virus as an experiment, not intending it to ever be used. The virus was obtained by someone close to her and released into the wild and had infected millions of computers worldwide in a few hours! This particular virus attacked media files like JPGs and MP3s and for each one on a PC, it became a part of the virus, spreading it across the world like an ill-wind. This virus is sent via e-mail in May 2000 with "I LOVE YOU" in the subject field, it replicated itself to everyone in the user's Outlook address book and then destroyed local files. The "I Love You" menace clogged up Web servers, manipulated personal files and caused IT System Managers to shut e-mail systems off the network. It corrupts MP3 and JPEG files on users' hard drives, as well as mIRC, a version of Internet Relay Chat. It also appears to reset the default start page for Internet Explorer. Look how deadly "I LOVE YOU" can be in the cyber world!


Let's us now end with a funny video on computer virus! Enjoyyy!!