Computer viruses are a very scary thought, without knowing their purpose or what they are capable of, a common uneducated person would practically go insane if they heard about a computer virus going around. This paper is designed to educate you, the reader about what a computer virus does, how it works, and how to deal with them.
Most computer virus writers are males between the ages of 14-24. Why do they do it? Some say to see if they can outsmart anti-virus program makers. (Cannell, "Computer Virus") Now, what is a computer virus? A computer virus is a self replicating computer program that interferes with a computer's software or operating system. A virus is designed to replicate and elude detection. (© 1998 Microsoft Corp.)
There are many different virus types. Each different type varies in how they execute, and how they cause damage.
A bootstrap sector virus will reside on the first partition, (A technical name for a portion of a hard disk that has been split into drives), work its way into the boot sector, and replace the programs that store information about the software involved in setting up the computer. (© 1998 Microsoft Corp.)
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