a virus is a self-replicating
In computer securityComputer security is the effort to create a secure computing platform, designed so that agents (users or programs) can only perform actions that have been allowed. This involves specifying and implementing a security policy. The actions in question can be reduced to operations of access, modification and deletion. Computer security can be seen as a subfield of security engineering, which looks at broader security issues in addition to computer security....
[click for more] technology, a virus is a self-replicating programProgram or Programme can refer to: a computer program a radio program, a television program a collection of managed projects a 12-step program one of the short films in The Animatrix series. ...
[click for more] that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents (for a complete definition: see below). Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virusList of biological viruses A virus is a small particle which can infect other biological organisms. Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites meaning that they can only reproduce by invading and taking over other cells as they lack the cellular machinery for self reproduction. The term virus usually refers to those particles which infect eukaryotes (multi-celled organisms and many single-celled organisms), whilst the term bacteriophage or phage is used to describe those infecting prokaryotes (bacteria an...
[click for more], which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of the virus into a program is termed infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host. Viruses are one of the several types of malwareMalware (a portmanteau of "malicious software") is any software developed for the purpose of doing harm to a computer system. Malware can be classified based on how it is executed, how it spreads, and/or what it...
View Full Essay