Department Of Humanities

A LOOK
INTO

COMPUTER VIRUS
By Nimisha Ekka
And Anjali Bhoi
Section: D1

WHAT IS A
COMPUTER VIRUS?
A PROGRAM OR A PIECE OF CODE
DAMAGES HARDWARE, SOFTWARE AND FILES
ABILITY TO REPLICATE AND ATTACH ITSELF TO OTHER
PROGRAMS

NOT TO BE CONFUSED
VIRUS: CANNOT SPREAD WITHOUT HUMAN
ACTION

WORMS: TRAVELS WITHOUT HUMAN ACTION

THROUGH
NETWORK CONNECTION

TROJAN: CLAIMS TO DO ONE THING BUT

DOES
SOMETHING ELSE,
DO NOT SELF REPLICATE

BOOT SECTOR

MULTIPARTICLE

FILE OR PROGRAM
MACRO
DIRECTORY

OVERWRITE

COMPANION

STEALTH

MEMORY RESIDENT

WEBSCRIPTING

TYPES
OF

POLYMORPHIC

FAT

Types of viruses

BOOT SECTOR VIRUS: Affects the boot sector of a

hard disk
Ex:Randex, CMJ
PROGRAM VIRUS: Infects executable files. Ex-sunday
MULTIPARTICLE VIRUS: A hybrid of boot and
program virus. Ex-invader

POLYMORPHIC VIRUS: Encrypts itself in a different

way every time they infect a
system. Ex- Marburg

Types of viruses

MEMORY RESIDENT VIRUS: Fix

themselves in the computer memory and
get activated whenever the OS runs and
infects all the files that are then opened.
Ex- Randex
STEALTH VIRUS: uses various
mechanisms to avoid detection
byantivirus software. Ex-Frodo
DIRECTORY VIRUS: Infect the directory
of your computer by changing the path
that indicates the location of a file. Ex- Dir2

Types of viruses

OVERWRITE VIRUS: Deletes the information

contained in the files that it infects, making them
partially or totally useless.
Ex- Trj.Reboot
MACRO VIRUS: a type of e-mail virus, infect files
that contain macros and also infects the templates
and documents that the file contains.
Ex- Melissa.A
FAT VIRUS: Attacks the FAT(File Allocation Table)
section and damages crucial information. Ex- Link
Virus
WEB-SCRIPTING VIRUS: Many web pages
include complex codes in order to create an

HOW DOES COMPUTER VIRUS

SPREAD?
E-MAIL
ATTACHMENTS
REMOVABLE
MEDIA

INTERNET DOWNLOAD

TYPICAL LIFECYCLE OF
COMPUTER VIRUS

Common virus
infection symptoms
Unexplained messages appear on the screen
Specific files are mysteriously deleted
Unknown files are added to a disk
An entire disk or drive is erased
Keyboard does not work properly
Unexplained modifications are made to data
or documents
Operating system software or Application
software seems to be changed
Slows down computer action

SOME FAMOUS COMPUTER

VIRUS
YEAR

NAME

1971

CREEPER

1982

ELK CLONER

1988

MORRIS

1990

MELISSA

2000

I LOVE YOU

2001

CODE RED

2001

NIMADE

2003

SQL SLAMMER

2003

BLASTER

2004

SASSER

TIPS!
BACK UP YOUR WORK:
BACKING UP YOUR WORK ON SEVERAL
REMOVABLE DISKS OR HARD DRIVES IS
OFTEN A GOOD WAY TO AVOID LOSING
DATA DUE TO VIRUSES.

RUN NEW SOFTWARE WITH

CAUTION
USE ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

REFERENCE

www.cisco.com
www.webopedia.com
Wikipedia
Book -Objective Computer Awareness-R
Pillai

THANK
YOU!