V.I.R.U.S. (Vital Information Resource Under Siege)
A
VIRUS is a small, executable program with the ability to replicate
itself, usually Without the permission or knowledge of the user.
The word
"virus" is the generic term for worm, viruses and Trojans.
Computer
viruses are called ‘viruses’ because they share some common characteristics of
biological viruses. Computer viruses like the biological viruses are task
specific. They are designed to infect a designated target. This can be a
specific type of file or computer sub-system. It must piggy back on top of some
other program to get executed. It passes from computer to computer like
biological viruses pass from person to person. Fighting computer virus is like
human intelligence fighting against itself. Virus-masters continuously upgrade
their techniques to ensure their survival in the computing Environment.
Computer virologists face the task of combating new viruses that have been
developed by members of their own programming fraternity. Once they have found
an anti-virus software to take care of an existing virus, virus-meisters invent
a new string of viruses, which are even more difficult to decipher or crack.
Appearance
of computer viruses is one of the most interesting developments in Technology
in the twentieth century. Computer viruses are mysterious but fascinating at
the same time. Every time a new virus hits, it makes the news. On the other
hand they
Show
how sophisticated they have become in terms of technology, and it is precisely
our
dependence
on technology that makes us so vulnerable.
Coming back to viruses... virus can add its code
anywhere in the host program and/or the system area of a hard disk or floppy
disk. The host program is nothing but an executable file like .EXE, .COM,
etc. Anywhere in the file means that the virus code can get appended in the
beginning, end, in the middle or by simply placing a pointer to a different
location on disk where the virus can find it. It is coded in such a way that
the virus code gets executed first. Also, the code it appends to a file is
normally not the complete source code of the virus. It is just the
self-replicating part so that it can attack more number of programs.
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