Nearly every day the media reports on the presence or existence of one type of computer virus or another. Despite the regular media coverage of and about computer viruses, many people still posit the question of “what is a computer virus.”
Technically speaking, the question of what is a computer virus is answered as follows:
“A virus is a program that reproduces it’s own code by attaching itself to other programs in such a way that the virus code is executed when the infected program is executed.”
Even after reading the definition of what is a computer virus provided thus far in this article a person likely still will be in the dark in trying to determine what is a computer virus.
A more plain English definition of what is a computer virus is:
“A virus is a program that copies itself. That’s the definition of a virus. To be classed a virus, a virus need do no more than replicate itself. A large percentage of viruses do no more than that. If a program does something destructive that you weren’t expecting, that doesn’t make it a virus, unless it replicates.”
More often than not a person naturally associates the term computer virus with something that infects a particular computer unit and causes damage to the software in that computer. Unfortunately, in this day and age, there are a plethora of computer viruses laying in wait all over the Internet and, at times, in software programs added onto a computer unit via a diskette or CD.
Once a person has a basic understanding of what is a computer virus it is vital that a person take steps to protect his or her computer unit – desktop or laptop – from invasion by a bothersome or deadly computer virus. An investment in solid anti-virus programming will be money well spent.