2. Discuss various signs that indicate that computer is infected with virus.
Answers
Answer:
What is a virus?
A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.
What is the virus’s goal?
The goal of a virus depends entirely on the person that made it and their intentions at the time. For example, A virus might be made to take advantage of a very specific exploit that is only available on very few computers after certain conditions have been meet, but the systems that have this exploit/hole might be systems that keep very valuable and sensitive information or run a widely used service for lots of other people. In this case the person making the virus would design to take advantage of the exploit to gain access to the data or to control the service that is being provided. This virus would be useless on another computer that is used for a different reason.
These days for people making the virus, they usually want it to be as widespread as possible. To do that they first target the Operating System that is the most used in the world which is Microsoft Windows. This is why there are so many virus’s for Windows Based computers and why it’s so important to take precautions to protect your computer from these viruses.
The most common goals that common viruses have today are…
• Collect data about your computer and the user’s habits and sell that data.
• Hijack your computer to push more Ads to your screen and gain money from advertising
• Hijack your computer and holds your computer for ransom until you pay it or tricks the user into buying fake software.
• To mess up your computer as much as they can, because they can.
While each virus is unique in its own way they can be generalised and put into a category based on how it infects your computer and what the goal of the virus is. Below is a list of different common symptoms your computer may experience and also a list of common types of infections.
The most common symptoms of a computer virus infection are…
• Your computer slows down without any reason.
• Your computer system has less available memory than it should.
• Unknown programs or files are being created.
• Programs or files become missing.
• Corrupted files.
• Your computer restarts in unusual ways.
• Some files or programs suddenly don't work properly.
• Strange messages, displays, music or sounds.
• Changed Hard Drive name or Volume name.
• Hard Drives or Disk Drives are inaccessible.
List of Common types of infections
Boot Sector Virus
The term “boot sector” is a generic name that applied generally to the boot information used by any operating system that is on your Hard Drive. In modern computers this is usually called the “master boot record,” and it is the first sector on a partitioned storage device. Boot sector viruses became popular because of the use of floppy disks to boot a computer. The widespread usage of the Internet and the death of the floppy has made other means of virus transmission more effective. While not as popular as it once was it is still used.
Slow start up and slow performance. ...
Suspicious hard drive activity. ...
Lack of storage space. ...
Missing files. ...
Crashes and error messages. ...
High network activity. ...
Email is hijacked.