Data Loss Caused By Computer Viruses

By Author: James Walsh
Total Articles: 68
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A virus has the capacity to destroy all the data in computers within no minute. A properly structured virus would have a disastrous impact on the worldwide internet.

In January 2004, a much-talked-about virus ‘Mydoom worm' had infected around quarter million computers within a day. Similarly, we had a distressing problem due to ‘I Love You' virus in 2000. ‘Melissa' virus was another properly engineered virus, which made the working of the email systems come to a standstill. Even Microsoft and other large companies had to shut down their email systems, until the virus was controlled.

Those destructive software are termed as viruses because they too have the same traits of biological viruses. A biological virus passes from person to person, and causes devastating effect on the human body; similarly, computer viruses also keep on passing from one computer to another computer and cause harm. They are being created deliberately and would be organised in such a way that it would enter into the network that will have the capacity to destroy any number of data stored in the computer systems. The viruses ...
... would be allied with a real program, and every time the program runs, the virus will also be activated. It will ruin the system, and collapse all the data without the knowledge of the user.

Virus can be spread through various ways; for instance, it might get transferred from one computer to another, through removable discs such as CD, USB drive and floppy drive. It will get multiplied by piggybacking on real programs and destroy the valuable data in the systems of computer users.

Viruses spreading through email messages are more common nowadays. They will enter into our system through email messages by automatically mailing themselves. They replicate themselves a number of times, and have a huge potential to cause damage. Many a time, the internet users will get messages such as ‘Congratulations! you have won a prize', colourful pictures, and any attractive messages, merely to prompt the users to open them. As they open these messages, the virus will enter into the computer, and might cause a system crash.

Viruses could also spread through network file system. They would delete files or reformat the hard disk, and would also modify the files in the system. There are some viruses that are not harmful as they will simply replicate and will make their presence felt by displaying text messages and other audio or video messages. It will register its presence to everyone. However, it will occupy the memory of the computer and might result in inconsistent behaviour.

Though the law is very much harsh on the virus creators, every now and then, we have been noticing several new viruses. By creating viruses, some people are getting utmost pleasure and it might also be an outcome of psychological disorder. Some people will try their hand just to test their excellence, and also to satisfy their meaningless desires. They will get fun out of it, and be simply thrilled to watch the things blowing up. Computer viruses not only cause data loss, but also cause mental strain to the users, and it would make them to sit idle, until things are set right.

Some of the viruses that are recently doing the rounds are, ‘Mywife.e', ‘Kamasutra' and ‘VB.bi'. If they get activated, they will have the capacity to corrupt all documents with extensions such as doc, pdf, dmp, pps, xls, ppt and zip. All the files in the Word, Excel, pdf files, Photoshop files and a variety of database would be lost forever. While entering into a system, some viruses would destroy the task associated with antivirus software, so that it cannot be detected.

Creating viruses and allowing them to pass through the system, is considered terrorism in the cyber world. The speed and dynamism of some of viruses are really a nightmare to the computer users. They capture data like a fire destroying the house. The damages created by the viruses, in the future, would be incalculable. Though many antivirus software were invented, and Data Recovery companies are offering yeoman services, nothing can stop the virus creators from posing challenges to individuals and organisations, through their evil designs. Combating computer viruses is not an easy task as it involves money, time and energy.

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