Executive Summary about All about Computer Viruses by Kara Glover

Your computer is as slow as molasses. You might have a virus.

Just what exactly is a virus? What kind is in your computer? Viruses are pieces of programming code that make copies of themselves, or replicate, inside your computer without asking your explicit written permission to do so. Viruses don’t bother to seek your permission at all! We’ll be talking about the bad guys, the viruses.

When you opened your Microsoft Word program, the virus replicated and attached itself to other files. These could be other random files on your hard drive, the files furthest away from your Microsoft Word program, or other files, depending on how the virus writer wanted the virus to behave.

This virus code could contain hundreds or thousands of instructions. When it replicates it inserts those instructions, into the files it infects, said Carey Nachenberg, Chief Architect at Symantec Research Labs, an arm of anti-virus software-maker Symantec. Because so many other types of viruses exist now, the kind just described is called a classic virus. It has virus code hidden in its background that IE isn’t protecting you from. While you’re looking at the site, the virus is downloaded onto your computer, he said. That’s one way of catching a nasty virus.

It’s easy for a virus writer to put a download with a virus on one of these sites because everyone’s sharing with everyone else anyway.

Some viruses, though a small percentage according to Nachenberg, are inserted straight into emails themselves.

All you have to do is view the email to potentially get a virus, Kuo added. Well, once everything is “loaded,” a virus in the email might just load onto your computer.

You could get a virus that way. Worms are viruses that come into your computer via networks, Kuo said. They travel from machine to machine and, unlike, the classic viruses, they attack the machine itself rather than individual files.

OK, so we’ve talked about how the viruses get into a computer. Let’s say you’ve caught a classic virus, one that replicates and attacks various files on your computer. Let’s go back to the example of the virus that initially infects your Microsoft Word program.

For instance, a virus could be programmed to lay dormant until January 28. There are other potential reasons, though, for a virus to cause your computer to be acting slow or in weird ways. The sole purpose of some viruses is to create a vulnerability in your computer. Once the virus writer receives the signal, they can use and abuse your computer to their own likings.

Trojans are pieces of code you might download onto your computer, say, from a newsgroup. Now back to the real viruses. Let’s say we have Joe Shmo virus writer. He sends out a virus that ends up infecting a thousand machines. OK, so the virus writers now control these computers. Ever heard of phishing emails? Of course makers of anti-virus software use a variety of methods to combat the onslaught of viruses. Norton, for instance, uses signature scanning, Nachenberg said.

Norton examines programming code to find what viruses are made of. When it finds such virus code, it lets you know!