Kinds Of Computer Viruses
Learn about kinds of computer viruses. A virus is self-replicating programme which alters the normal operations of a computer system. They can be transferred from one computer system to another through various medium such as the flash disks, the external hard drive amongst other multimedia devices.
There are numerous kinds of computer viruses which are currently available in the internet. This has been one of the major threats to most computer users especially when the computer is connected to the internet network.
Examples of computer viruses include the polymorphic viruses.
The polymorphic viruses are some the most sophisticated kinds of computer viruses since they have the ability to replicate in the computer systems. They therefore require very sophisticated forms of ant-virus.
These viruses have the ability to change their digital signatures from time to time as they replicate from one section to the other within the computer system. A digital signature is the code which defines the ability and the form which the virus. When this code keeps on changing from time to time, then it becomes very difficult to eliminate them from the computer systems.
Boot sector virus
They affect the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a computer system. Since the MBR contains the entire important boot strapping instructions, when affected by a virus then most definitely the virus can easily take full control of the computer system making
it difficult to carry out the required tasks.
When computers with these kinds of computer viruses are turned on, then the virus launches immediately and swiftly loads to the computer memory and hence taking full control of all computer operations.
Retrovirus
These are also very dangerous kinds of computer viruses. Just as the polymorphic virus, they also require very sophisticated and powerful kinds of computer anti-virus. The retrovirus have the ability to attack the anti-virus software installed in the computer system and at times they may destroy its definition data base hence making the ant-virus less effective or even disable the anti-virus.
Apart from this very unique and deadly quality, they extensively interfere with the normal operations of the computer. If not dealt with in good time, they might make the computer system to crush.
Armoured virus
It’s not different from both the polymorphic and the retrovirus kinds of computer viruses. Once they get access to the computer system, they undergo a series of transformations making it difficult to be detected and analysed by the anti-virus software.
They develop protective mechanism which helps them hide from the anti-virus software.
Some kinds of computer viruses may opt to remain dormant but after a given period of time they affect the computer system. They are either timed or triggered by some events within the computer. These viruses are referred to as either the logic or time bombs.
Rootkit virus
They cannot easily be detected as they have the ability to disguise themselves from the computer anti-virus since they take the form of the Operating System files. They are not very harmful as the computer users can still access their PCs without and difficulty.
Other kinds of computer viruses include the file deleting viruses which deletes the most important files, the Macro viruses which are created using the VBA amongst other kinds of computer viruses.
