Extended_Definition_Of_A_Computer_Virus

Extended Definition Of A Computer Virus Extended Definition of a Computer Virus Purpose: The purpose of this report is to provide an extended definition of a Computer Virus. Scope: This report will give an overview of a computer virus to include: What is a computer virus The life cycle of a virus How viruses spread The different classes of computer viruses How you can protect your computer from being infected with a computer virus What is a computer virus' A virus is a piece of programming code usually disguised as something else that causes some unexpected and usually undesirable event. A virus is often designed so that it is automatically spread to other computer users. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note, as downloads, or be present on a diskette or CD. The source of the e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette you've received is often unaware of the virus. Some viruses carry out their effect as soon as their code is executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses are playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday, Betty!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. Which would mean you would be starting all virus, viruses, software, computer, disk, files, program, file, e-mail, diskette, boot, system, damage, antivirus, typically, time, spread, make, hard, code, anti-virus, warning, source, programming, one, note, life, infected, infect, cycle, create, certain, attachments, activate, 01/17/2004