Protection Against Computer Viruses Essay by RELEE

This paper discusses computer viruses, computer software programs that interfere with the smooth running of a computer's OS and hardware and are designed to replicate and hide themselves to avoid detection. A virus' main goal is to infect and replicate on as many other systems as possible causing as much damage in the process such as erasing hard disks or deleting vital files that run certain software programs. It presents information that gives users who do not have much experience in this area of network security an introductory overview of what malicious software is and how it works. It examines three main areas of importance, the definition of a virus, types of viruses and virus protection. Trojans and Worms are also covered.