MTA On Line Self Help Page
What is a Virus?
A virus is a malicious program designed to perform various tasks (all of which cause computer users headaches). A virus is is able to replicate and distribute itself among other computers typically using email, networks or other programs.
Virus's usually have several distinct and different purposes (referred to as payloads).
Fred Cohen wrote the first documented virus.
There are generally three types of virus's.
Program virus. It's usually piggybacked on a program. Say for example, you have received a Power Point Presentation on a CD from a friend who got it from a friend who's second sister on her fathers side found it on the Internet. The chances are good that that program has a virus on it and every time you ran it, the virus would run. This type of virus can have several purposes but the primary goal will be for it to duplicate its self and attach to other programs, then spread.
Email virus. This typically arrives as an attachment to an email. Once it's launched, it scours your PC for other email addresses and sends itself out. Then it wreaks havoc on your PC.
Network virus. Network virus's are the worst. Most networks build security to keep virus's out and they really don't monitor the actual network itself. Many times, a virus is introduced "inside the network" via programs or emails and once that happens, it can cause a lot of damage before it's finally detected.
Virus's carry different payloads.
Destructive - This is by far the most common type of Virus. It's sole purpose is to get in your computer, replicate itself and then start deleting or changing files. Some virus's have been known to actually cause physical damage to computers by causing the hard drive to spin until it breaks.
Slave - This type of virus gets into your PC and waits until a specified time to perform a specific task. Typical examples of this type of virus include a DOS attack (Denial of Service Attack) or turning your computer into a Spam Server. Example, this type of virus would spread among hundreds of thousands of computers and at 8:00am on Monday Morning, all the infected computers would begin "pinging" a specific site. This action does one of two things; 1) It congests the site to the point where nobody can get to it or 2) It crashes the sites server. This is often referred to as a Denial of Service Attack and depending on the institution being attached can have catastrophic consequences.
Nuisance - These virus's simply cause pains in the rump. The perfect example of this was the RCP Virus. It's sole purpose was to make your computer reboot every 2 to 10 minutes. This was particularly frustrating because it took 15 to 20 minutes to download the fix. GRRRRR
Information Theft - A virus designed to gather and steal information from users.
The Team
