- Industry: Software
- Number of terms: 9143
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A virus is a computer program file capable of attaching to disks or other files and replicating itself repeatedly, typically without user knowledge or permission. Some viruses attach to files so when the infected file executes, the virus also executes. Other viruses sit in a computer's memory and infect files as the computer opens, modifies, or creates the files. Some viruses display symptoms, and others damage files and computer systems, but neither is essential in the definition of a virus; a non-damaging virus is still a virus. There are computer viruses written for several operating systems including DOS, Windows, Amiga, Macintosh, Atari, UNIX, and others. McAfee. Com presently detects more than 57,000 viruses, Trojans, and other malicious software. Also see: boot sector infector, file viruses, macro virus, companion virus, worm.
Industry:Software
A variant is a modified version of a virus. It is usually produced on purpose by the virus author or another person amending the virus code. If changes to the original are small, most anti-virus products will also detect variants. However, if the changes are large, the variant may go undetected by anti-virus software.
Industry:Software
Vaccination is a technique some anti-virus programs use to store information about files in order to notify the user about file changes. Internal vaccines store the information within the file itself, while external vaccines use another file to verify the original for possible changes.
Industry:Software
A triggered event is an action built into a virus that is set off by a specific condition. Examples include a message displayed on a specific date or reformatting a hard drive after the 10th execution of a program.
Industry:Software
This is the standard for naming network drives. For example, a UNC directory path has the following form: \\server\resource-pathname\subfolder\filename.
Industry:Software
Tunneling is a virus technique designed to prevent anti-virus applications from working correctly. Anti-virus programs work by intercepting the operating system before it can execute a virus. Tunneling viruses try to intercept the actions before the anti-virus software can detect the malicious code. New anti-virus programs can recognize many viruses with tunneling behavior.
Industry:Software
A Trojan horse is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application. It purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but they can be just as destructive.
Industry:Software
A time bomb is a malicious action triggered at a specific date or time. Also see: logic bomb.
Industry:Software
The timestamp is the time of creation or last modification recorded on a file or another object. Users can usually find the timestamp in the Properties section of a file.
Industry:Software
It is a design limitation at the 640kb mark on most PCs. Often the boot record does not completely reach top of memory, thus leaving empty space. Boot-sector infectors often try to conceal themselves by hiding around the top of memory. Checking the top of memory value for changes can help detect a virus, though there are also non-viral reasons this value changes.
Industry:Software
