Computer Viruses/Infections
A computer virus is a piece of software that "invades" a computer. As such, a computer virus is one of several kinds of infections, including Trojan horses and worms. Infections are themselves a subset of possible attacks on computers and networks; other attacks include probes, unauthorized access, denial of service, Internet sniffers, and large-scale scanning. This entry focuses on viruses, worms, and Trojan horses—collectively termed electronics infections—the three most common kinds of attacks and the ones best known by the public (Carnegie Mellon University Internet site). All such infections constitute multiple ethical and political issues: the responsibilities to protect against them, determining consequences for those responsible for attacks, and how to educate users about their vulnerabilities.
Technical Features
A virus is a piece of software that is hidden inside a larger program. When the larger program is executed, the virus is executed as well. During that execution, the virus can try to fulfill its purpose, often to replicate (that is, copy) itself in other programs on its host machine or (via the Internet) to new host machines. This copying and sending takes up resources on the original machine, on the Internet's communications capacity, and on any new machines infected.
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