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Introduction About Computer Viruses and Their Types.

A computer virus is a type of malware that replicates itself by inserting its code into other programs. It does this by infecting an application which then spreads the virus code to other programs on the computer. Once installed, the virus can execute malicious payloads like stealing passwords or encrypting files and demanding ransom. There are many types of viruses including resident viruses which infect running programs, boot sector viruses which infect the startup disk, and macro viruses which infect documents.

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27 views

Introduction About Computer Viruses and Their Types.

A computer virus is a type of malware that replicates itself by inserting its code into other programs. It does this by infecting an application which then spreads the virus code to other programs on the computer. Once installed, the virus can execute malicious payloads like stealing passwords or encrypting files and demanding ransom. There are many types of viruses including resident viruses which infect running programs, boot sector viruses which infect the startup disk, and macro viruses which infect documents.

Uploaded by

lianerivera24
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computer Virus

What is it?
- A computer virus is a type of malware that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other
computer programs and inserting its own code into those programs. If this replication succeeds,
the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a computer virus, a metaphor derived from
biological viruses.

What does it do?


- Imagine an application on your computer has been infected by a virus. How does the virus do its
dirty work? Bleeping Computer provides a good high-level overview of how the process works.
The general course goes something like this: the infected application executes (usually at the
request of the user), and the virus code is loaded into the CPU memory before any of the
legitimate code executes.
- At this point, the virus propagates itself by infecting other applications on the host computer,
inserting its malicious code wherever it can. (A resident virus does this to programs as they open,
whereas a non-resident virus can infect executable files even if they aren’t running.) Boot sector
viruses use a particularly pernicious technique at this stage: they place their code in the boot
sector of the computer’s system disk, ensuring that it will be executed even before the operating
system fully loads, making it impossible to run the computer in a “clean” way.
- Once the virus has its hooks into your computer, it can start executing its payload, which is the
term for the part of the virus code that does the dirty work its creators built it for. These can
include all sorts of nasty things: Viruses can scan your computer hard drive for banking
credentials, log your keystrokes to steal passwords, turn your computer into a zombie that
launches a DDoS attack against the hacker’s enemies, or even encrypt your data and demand a
bitcoin ransom to restore access. (Other types of malwares can have similar payloads.)

Types of Computer Viruses

Resident viruses infect programs that are currently executing.


Non-resident viruses by contrast, can infect any executable code, even if it isn’t currently running
Boot sector viruses infect the sector of a computer’s startup disk that is read first, so it executes
before anything else and is hard to get rid of
Macro virus infects macro applications embedded in Microsoft Office or PDF files. Many people who
are careful about never opening strange applications forget that these sorts of documents can themselves
contain executable code. Don’t let your guard down!
Direct action virus accesses a computer’s main memory and infects all programs, files, and folders
located in the autoexec.bat path, before deleting itself. This virus typically alters the performance of a
system but is capable of destroying all data on the computer’s hard disk and any USB device attached to
it.
polymorphic virus slightly changes its own source code each time it copies itself to avoid detection
from antivirus software.
Web scripting viruses execute in JavaScript in the browser and try to infect the computer that way.
Multipartite virus uses multiple methods to infect and spread across computers. It will typically
remain in the computer’s memory to infect the hard disk, then spread through and infect more drives by
altering the content of applications. This results in performance lag and application memory running low.
File infector is one of the most common computer viruses. It overwrites files when they are opened
and can quickly spread across systems and networks. It largely affects files with .exe or .com extensions.
Overwrite viruses are extremely dangerous. They can delete data and replace it with their own file
content or code. Once files get infected, they cannot be replaced, and the virus can affect Windows, DOS,
Linux, and Apple systems. The only way this virus can be removed is by deleting all of the files it has
infected, which could be devastating.
Network viruses are extremely dangerous because they can completely cripple entire computer
networks. They are often difficult to discover, as the virus could be hidden within any computer on an
infected network.

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