What is Computer Virus? Definition and Meaning of A computer virus – It is a dangerous software or program that was created to infect the computer by deleting all the files or attacking other computer systems.
So computer virus is a malicious code that attacks your computer and destroys all the important data, stealing your personal information.
A virus attacks your computer when you install any infected software programs or copy infected virus files into your computer system. When you connected your computer to the internet and unfortunately you open a program or spam, it attacks your files.
So it is important to protect your computer from these types of dangerous viruses.
Full form of Computer Virus: Vital Information Resources Under Siege (VIRUS)
How to Protect our system from Computer Virus
- Don’t open any attachments from spam mail, those spamming emails may contain malicious programs that attack your computer.
- Never click or open any links that you received by email or instant messages.
- Never install unwanted software on your PC because that software makes systems run dead slowly.
- Don’t download files or software from an infected website, it is important to download from reliable websites.
- Install premium antivirus software, update it regularly, and scan your PC to find out any infected computer viruses. e.g. kaspersky antivirus
- Install a firewall and it prevents an unauthorized person to access the files from the internet.
- Never respond to spam mail. If you respond to the mail, you are approving that your email address is working.
Effects of a computer virus
- It slows your computer’s performs
- Sometimes your computer restarts suddenly and crashes your files.
- There will be a chance of hacking your personal data that is related to financial data.
- It crashes your system permanently.
- A good computer will get infected by a virus if you transfer files from an infected PC to a good PC.
Types of Computer Virus
A computer virus is a type of malware that if it enters the computer’s memory, then it can multiply itself, and change programs and applications.
Computers are infected when these malicious codes keep on replicating themselves. Here I am going to provide you the information about the types of these Computer Viruses.
What is Boot Sector Virus?
This type of virus infects the master boot record and it is very difficult to remove them and often the system has to be formatted to remove them. These are mainly spread through removable media like CD, USB, Pen Drive, etc.
What are Direct Action Viruses?
These are also called non-resident viruses, once it is installed, it remains hidden in the computer memory. It stays attached to those specific types of files that it infects. They do not infect the user experience and the system’s performance.
Resident Virus Definition
Like direct action viruses, resident viruses also get installed in the computer. Apart from this, identifying them is an equally difficult task.
This virus implants itself in the memory of the computer. Basically, there is no need for the original virus program for infection to infect any files or programs. Even if you delete the original virus, a version of it is stored in the memory, which gets activated automatically.
This happens when a computer operating system (OS) loads some applications or functions. Since it is hidden in the system’s RAM, it is often not able to detect any antivirus or antimalware.
Definition of Multipartite Virus
This type of virus can affect the system in multiple ways. Both of these infect the boot sector and executable files together.
What is Overwrite Virus
This type of virus deletes all the files that they infect. To remove these viruses from the system, the user has to delete all the infected files, which causes data loss.
It is very difficult to identify these viruses because they are spread through emails.
Spacefiller Viruses – These are also called “Cavity Viruses”. They have been given this name because it fills all the spaces in the code, so it does not harm the files.
What is File Infectors Virus
Some file infector viruses come attached to program files, such as .com or .exe files. Some file infector viruses also infect files containing .sys, .ovl, .prg, and .mnu.
In the same way, when a particular program is also loaded, the virus is also loaded automatically. These viruses come to the users’ computers along with the email.
Macro viruses Definiiton
As the name suggests, these macro viruses mainly target macro language commands such as in some applications such as Microsoft Word & MS Excel.
These macro viruses are designed in such a way that they easily add their malicious code to genuine macro sequences.
What are Overwrite Viruses
This virus has been designed in such a way that it can overwrite itself and destroy any file or application data. Once it starts the attack, it starts overwriting its own code.
What are Polymorphic Viruses
This type of virus is used by cybercriminals. This is a type of malware type that can easily change or mutate its underlying code and without changing any basic functions or features.
With this, it does not even come under the grip of which anti-malware. Whenever an anti-malware detects it, it modifies itself which makes it very difficult to catch it.
What are Rootkit Viruses
This rootkit virus is a type of malware type that secretly installs an illegal rootkit in the infected system. With this, it opens a door for attackers who give them full control over the system.
With this, attackers can easily modify or disable any program or function fundamentally. These rootkit viruses can easily bypass antivirus software. A rootkit scanner is needed to capture them.
System or Boot-record Infectors Viruses
These Boot-record Infectors infect the executable code which is found in specific system areas of the disk. As the name suggests, they infect more USB thumb drives and the DOS boot sector.
These boot viruses are not seen much nowadays because the current systems do not depend on much physical storage media.
What is Malware? & Effects of Malware on Computer System
The full name of the malware is malicious software. This is also a software program that harms computers. Malicious software means bad software which is not good at all and once it comes into your system then it can completely spoil your system.
Malware is also the name of a virus that slowly starts destroying the data of your system.
Where does malware come from in our computers? Malware can come from many places in our system and the most used common source in today’s day is the internet.
On the Internet, we get some information every day. If we went to any malicious site to get the same information or downloaded pirated software, games, and movies from anywhere, then from there malware comes online on our computer.
This was about how online malware gets into our computers, now we will know how offline malware gets into our computers.
We all use Pendrive, CDs, and DVDs on our computers. When we connect Pendrive and CDs to our computer to take data from other places, then malware comes into our computer from all these things and our computer destroys the data.
What are Worms? Impact of Warms on Computer
Worms are also like viruses but they multiply themselves and try to spread themselves as much as possible. This means that if worms come into your system, then they start making many copies of different files, due to which the system becomes slow.
If we copy and share the same files with another computer, then worms will slow down that computer by going there too by making many copies of the files.
What is Trojan Horse? Its impact on computer
Trojan Horse is a very dangerous malware. This malware comes into your computer by hiding your identity.
For example, suppose you are using the internet and you have visited any site, there you see an advertisement like “click here to win a Laptop” and if you click on it, then trojan horse malware will come into your computer only through it. And you will not even know about it and your system will completely spoil.
They are also present on the internet in the form of many software, you will feel that it is genuine software but in reality, it is a trojan that is hidden inside that software and once it comes into your computer then it will be your computer starts slowing down. Along with that, he would open a door from which other types of viruses and worms come into your computer.
Signs of Virus Infection in the System
How to know whether your system is infected with Viruses or not. That is why here I am going to tell about some warning signs which are very important for all computer users to know –
- Slower system performance
- Pop-ups appear again and again on the screen
- Programs running on their own
- Automatically multiplying/duplicating files
- Automatically install new files and programs on the computer
- Automatically delete and corrupt files, folders, or programs
- Strange sound from hard drive
If such warnings are shown in your system then you should know that your system can be infected by a virus. So soon download and scan a good antivirus software.
Importance of Antivirus software
It is important to install antivirus software to protect from computer viruses. This antivirus checks all the incoming and outgoing messages for viruses. For example, if your friend sends an email with an attachment, we should not assume that the attachment is safe to open.
Your friend’s computer may be infected with a virus and an email attachment is affected by the virus. So antivirus program scans emails before you open the attachments.
So the best way to protect our system from infected computer viruses is by installing antivirus programs, updating the computer OS, and enabling firewalls. Read the computer virus definition in Economic Times.
Conclusion: What Did You Learn Today
I hope you must have liked my article What is Computer Virus – Definition & Meaning of Computer Virus. It has always been my endeavor to provide complete information about the type of virus to the readers. So that they do not have to search any other sites or the internet in the context of that article.
This will also save them time and they will also get all the information in one place. If you have any doubts about this article or you want that there should be some improvement in it, then you can write comments for this.
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