List of Computer Viruses and their Effects
Computer viruses can damage the entire data in a system in seconds, and even system itself is not spared unaffected. Above all, the agony of re-installation of everything, if hard-disk is not damaged in a system is in addition. It spreads like a jungle fire, causing huge losses to a economy in seconds. For example, experts estimated that a computer virus names Storm that was launched in January 2007 damaged 50 million systems by October. The travelling speed of viruses is even greater than speed of data transfer, and once they hit a system, it is really difficult and in many cases almost impossible to contain their effects.
It is a better way for a computer user to be aware of type of viruses and worms in advance. Being aware of their types, determining their potential to cause damage to a system is also possible. If a user is aware of the viruses in advance, it is most likely they will not be opened, and this can prevent infecting the system. For example, I LOVE YOU virus that was launched into the cyber space tempted many users to try open the file and thus it affected them badly. It was mainly because of lack of knowledge about types of viruses that made many users tried the file. Having an information about viruses beforehand can by sometimes very helpful.
Instructions
-
1
Computer Virus
Computer virus or virus is small piece of a software or application that attaches itself to a program. It can be a self generated or engineered by someone and launched. Once it is attached to a program, it runs every time you open that program or application. For example, if it is attached to an Excel Sheet, it will run and duplicate itself to other applications, every time you open the Excel Sheet. Sometimes its duplication speed is too fast to contain and at time it develops to spread even without opening of the file or application it attaches itself to. -
2
Computer E-mail Virus
This type of virus is attached to an email, either as an attachment or on rare occasions even without attachments. It often has attractive names such as I LOVE YOU that can tempt users to open the attachments. Once opened the virus can quickly email itself to all email address in your address book. It can also open without you clicking on it, especially if your email system does not have a scanning of email facility. -
3
Worm
A worm is a piece of a software or application that use gaps in network security to copy itself to a system. It travels very fast from a system to another system, without even opening the files which replicates itself to. It is more difficult to contain and even more damaging to network security system. It is particularly ruthless in scanning the entire system files to another system in a corrupt mode and causes huge losses in seconds. -
4
Trojan Horses
A Trojan horse is a program i.e. a game, which claims to be safe, but once you open it, it causes damage to your system as much as any other virus or worm. It is particularly quick in erasing data from your hard-disk. However, it does not replicate itself to other systems and networks.
