Chapter 3. Virus Disasters

 

‘Disasters normally don’t come alone. They usually bring their family along.’

 
 --Anonymous

What is a computer virus?

A computer virus is a software program, usually written by intelligent troublemakers (unethical software programmers), to wreak havoc on other computer programs. Viruses come in all flavours. A virus is a software program that serves no useful purpose. It is written with an intention to cause havoc by exploiting some vulnerabilities of the operating system or programs. Some viruses are harmless and can simply pop up with annoying messages, whereas other viruses are deadly and can wipe out all the data on a hard disk in a matter of minutes. A virus attack can happen in minutes and normally users will not ...

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