Spread of the Deadly Computer Virus
A computer virus is a program intended to multiply itself by first infecting the executable files or the system regions of hard and floppy disks and then creating copies of itself. Viruses usually carry out their function without the knowledge of the users.
The real consequence of any specific virus depends on how it was programmed by the person who made the virus. Some viruses are intentionally planned to harm files or otherwise hinder with your computer's process. Others just try to multiply themselves all around. These are harmful in a way that they injure files and may cause other harm in the process of scattering. However viruses cannot harm your hardware.
Viruses have the capability to infect any type of executable code and not just the files that are normally called 'program files'.
For example, a number of viruses contaminate executable code in the boot sector of floppy disks or in system areas of hard drives. Yet another kind of virus, known as a 'macro' virus, can infect word processing and spreadsheet documents that use macros.
Since virus code must be implemented to have any outcome, files that the computer treats as unadulterated data are secure. This includes graphics and sound files such as .gif, .jpg, .mp3, .wav, etc., as well as plain text in .txt files. For example, just viewing a picture file will not infect your computer with a virus. The virus code has to be in a form, like an .exe program file or a Word .doc file, which the computer will essentially try to execute.
Ways a Computer Virus Can Spread
For any virus to have any huge influence it needs to be able to multiply from one machine to another. They are particularly designed to get admission to those parts of your computer system that permit contact with other machines.
The most common ways for a virus to spread are:
Boot Infectors
Every disk whether it is a hard disk, floppy, CD, DVD contains a boot sector whether it is a bootable disk or not. The moment a computer is switched on, it looks for boot information. If the computer finds a disk with boot information, it reads that data and employs it to appropriately start the computer.
If for some reason that boot information is contaminated with a virus, the virus is set in motion and perhaps relocated to the computer's hard drive. Now that the boot code on the hard drive is infected, the virus will be loaded into your computer's memory each time you switch on your computer. From the memory, the boot virus can take a trip to any and every disk that is put into your computer. This is how the infection spreads.
Program Infectors
When an infected application operates, the virus gets active and is loaded into memory. Now that the virus is in memory, any new program file that you intend to run can become infected. This means that there will be increasingly more applications on your system that are tainted.
Multiple infections are very common and will certainly cause system problems. Viruses of this kind are often intended to look for programs that are used to share information between users/computers such as email applications, screen savers, office document Macros, and self-extracting condensed files.
Via e-mail attachments
Many of the most hazardous viruses are mainly distributed through e-mail attachments. Under such circumstances, the user working on the infected computer unwittingly assigns an infected file to an email message, and then sends the email to a friend or colleague.
When receiver tries to open the attachment, the virus launches itself and infects the computer. Email messages with animations, automated greeting cards, jokes, photographs, spreadsheet and document files, all have been recognized to contain virus files. Thus you must be very careful about what you download.
You can check the onset and spread of virus by installing genuine anti-virus software with full functionality. Herein it is important to inform that most of the so-called “Free” anti virus tools have limited functionality and hence they are not able to offer complete protection.
