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Computer Viruses

What is a Computer Virus?

In the Simpliest Terms...

Computer viruses are called viruses because they resemble biological viruses. A computer virus passes from computer to computer just like a biological virus passes from person to person.

A biological virus is not actually considered a living organism. In fact, the virus has no way to do anything, including reproduce, by itself. Instead, a biological virus must inject its DNA into a cell. The viral DNA then uses the cell's existing "machinery" to reproduce itself.

Just like a biological virus, and the need for host cell, a computer virus is essentially useless on its own. The virus must run on top of some other program or document in order to get executed. Once the virus is running, it is then able to infect other programs or documents.

For example, say your computer had contracted a virus, and this virus attached itself to a program such as a word processing program. Each time the word processing program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or just wreak havoc in general.