Watching Out for Viruses
A few years back, in the movie Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum stopped an intergalactic invasion by uploading a computer virus into the aliens' mothership and thereby scrambling the alien system.
A computer virus is program code secretly added to, or attached to, a file or email message that makes mischief when the file or message is opened. Often, the virus is designed to reproduce and spread itself from the file it travels in—its host file—to other files.
Computer viruses are created by immature, sick people, who get a thrill out of cheap little tricks—viruses that display silly messages on your screen—or major attacks—viruses that crash whole computer systems.
If you saw Independence Day, you might have wondered, “If ...
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