Computer

Viruses
What is a Computer Virus?
a computer virus is a type of malicious code or
program written to alter the way a computer
operates and is designed to spread from one
computer to another. A virus operates by
inserting or attaching itself to a legitimate
program or document that supports macros in
order to execute its code. In the process, a
virus has the potential to cause unexpected or
damaging effects, such as harming the system
software by corrupting or destroying data.
How do computer viruses spread?

In a constantly connected world, you can contract a computer virus in

many ways, some more obvious than others. Viruses can be spread
through email and text message attachments, Internet file downloads,
and social media scam links. Your mobile devices and smartphones can
become infected with mobile viruses through shady app downloads.
Viruses can hide disguised as attachments of socially shareable content
such as funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files.
What are the different types of computer viruses?
1.Spam can come in a variety of forms, although the most common is
unsolicited commercial email. Other forms of electronic spam include
search engine spam, instant messenger spam, forum spam and
comment spam.
• Email spam refers to unsolicited commercial email, these emails are
not only very annoying and sometimes offensive, but they also clog
up your inbox.
• Search engine spam refers to webpages which use various spam
techniques with the sole intention of ranking higher in the search
results of a search engine.
• Instant messenger spam takes place on instant messenging services.
There are two main types of this spam, indiscriminate and targeted.
• Forum spam describes the placing of unauthorised promotional posts
on Internet forums. These posts will either be promoting services, or
trying to create links to the spammer's website in order to get traffic
and the benefits a link can bring in certain search engines.
• Comment spam also referred to as blog spam (blam), is where a
spammer leaves comments on a blog, guestbook, or other type of
webpage where user comments are allowed.
2. A worm is a type of malicious software (malware) that replicates
while moving across computers, leaving copies of itself in the memory
of each computer in its path.
• An email worms uses a PC's email client to spread itself. It will either
send a link within the email that, when clicked, will infect the
computer, or it will send an attachment that, when opened, will start
the infection.
• Internet worms are completely autonomous programs. They use an
infected machine to scan the Internet for other vulnerable machines.
• File-sharing worms take advantage of the fact that file-sharers do not
know exactly what they are downloading.
• Instant Message and Chat Room Worms.These work in a similar way
to email worms. The infected worm will use the contact list of the
user's chat-room profile or instant-message program to send links to
infected websites
3. A computer trapdoor, also known as a back door, provides a secret --
or at least undocumented -- method of gaining access to an
application, operating system or online service. Programmers write
trapdoors into programs for a variety of reasons. Left in place,
trapdoors can facilitate a range of activities from benign
troubleshooting to illegal access.
4. A Trojan horse or Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised
as legitimate software. Trojans can be employed by cyber-thieves and
hackers trying to gain access to users' systems.
5. A logic bomb is a piece of code inserted into an operating
system or software application that implements a malicious function
after a certain amount of time, or specific conditions are met.
Logic bombs are often used with viruses, worms, and trojan horses to
time them to do maximum damage before being noticed. They perform
actions like corrupting or altering data, reformatting a hard drive, and
deleting important files.