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How Computer Viruses Work

Computer viruses have two parts: an infector and a detonator. The infector copies the virus to other computers by attaching itself to files like COMMAND.COM, replicating the virus. The detonator then performs the virus's damaging or interfering functions. To prevent viruses, antivirus software like virus shields and scanners should be installed, write-protected floppies used carefully, and pirated software avoided.

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86 views9 pages

How Computer Viruses Work

Computer viruses have two parts: an infector and a detonator. The infector copies the virus to other computers by attaching itself to files like COMMAND.COM, replicating the virus. The detonator then performs the virus's damaging or interfering functions. To prevent viruses, antivirus software like virus shields and scanners should be installed, write-protected floppies used carefully, and pirated software avoided.

Uploaded by

Doka Doka
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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HOW COMPUTER VIRUSES WORK

Virus Computer

Two Parts

Infector Detonator
VIRUSES HAVE TWO VERY DIFFERENT JOBS

1. ONE OF THE FEATURES OF A COMPUTER VIRUS THAT SEPERATES IT.


2. OTHER KIND OF COMPUTER PROGRAM IS THAT IT REPLICATES ITSELF ,
SO THAT IT CAN SPREAD ( VIA FLOPPIES TRANSPORTED FROM
COMPUTER , OR NETWORK) TO OTHER COMPUTERS. OR CD, AND USB
DRIVES.
3. After the infector has copied the virus elsewhere,the detonator performs the virus's main
work. Generally, that work is either damaging
data on your disks, altering what you see on your computer display, or doing something
else that interferes with the normal use of your computer.
Example

Lehigh Virus : THE INFECTOR PORTION OF LEHIGH REPLICATES


BY ATTACHING ACOPY OF ITSELF TO COMMMAND.COM(AN
IMPORTANT PART OF DOS ENLARGING IT BY ABOUT 1000 BYTES
So let's say you put a floppy containing COMMAND.COM into an infected PC at
your office -that is, a PC that is running the Lehigh program. The infector portion
of Lehigh looks over DOS's shoulder, monitoring all floppy accesses. The first time
you tell the infected PC to access your floppy drive, the Lehigh infector notices the
copy of COMMAND.COM on the floppy and adds a copy of itself to that file.Then
you take the floppy home to your PC and boot from the floppy. (In this case, you've
got to boot from the floppy in order for the virus to take effect, since you may have
many copies of COMMAND.COM on your hard and floppy disks, but DOS only
uses the COMMAND.COM on the
boot drive.)
Now the virus has silently and instantly been installed in your PC's memory. Every
time you access a hard disk subdirectory or a floppy disk containing
COMMAND.COM,the virus sees that file and infects it, in the hope that this
particular COMMAND.COM will be used on a boot disk on some computer
someday.
Don't worry too much about viruses. You may never see one. There
are just a few ways to become infected that you should be aware of.
The sources seem to be service people, pirated games, putting floppies
in publicly available PCs without write-protect tabs, commercial
software (rarely),and software distributed over computer bulletin
board systems (also quite rarely, despite media misinformation Many
viruses have spread through pirated -illegally copied or broken -
games. This is easy to avoid. Pay for your games, fair and square.If
you use a shared PC or a PC that has public access,such as one in a
college PC lab or a library, be very careful about putting floppies into
that PC's drives without a write-protect tab.
PREVENT VIRUSES BEFORE ATTACK

YOU MUST INSTALLED ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM, THERE ARE


ACTUALLY TWO KINDS :

1. VIRUS SHIELD, WHICH DETECT VIRUSES AS THEY ARE


INFECTING YOUR PC.
2. VIRUS SCANNERS, WHICH DETECT VIRUSES ONCE THEY
HAVE INFECTED YOUR PC.
REMEMBER THESE 4 POINTS:

• VIRUSES CAN'T INFECT A DATA OR TEXT FILE


• BE SURE TO COLD-BOOT FROM A WRITE PROTECTED
FLOOPY BEFORE RUNNING AN ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM
• DON'T BOOT FROM FLOPPIES EXCEPT RELIABLE DOS
DISKS OR YOUR ORIGINAL PRODUCTION DISKS
• STAY AWAY FROM PIRATED SOFTWARE
THANK YOU

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