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Minor
The effect of the virus is
annoying, but not actually damaging to the programs.
It is not very difficult to remove from the computer
and is also simple to repair.
Viruses that are somewhat harmful but are not
distributed would be a minor problem.
EXAMPLE
The Form
virus causes the keys on the keyboard to make a beeping
sound when they are pushed if it is the 18th day
of the month. |
Moderate
The effect
of the virus is that it might have formatted or overwritten
the hard drive. This
can be fixed by re-installing the programs and re-loading
the files that you keep backed up everyday.
It takes a few hours to get the computer clean and
back up running again.
These viruses are widely spread but are containable.
EXAMPLE
The
Michelangelo virus activates on March 6, Michelangelo
Bounnaroti's birthday, and overwrites most of the hard
disk. |
Major
The effect
of this virus is that it damages both the information on the
hard disk and the backup files.
The corruption to the backup files may be noticeable
or you may be using incorrect files and data and not even
know it. Another
effect of major damage when a virus gives your system
manager code to a third party on another computer.
This third party can log in to your system and do any
damage he wants to. A
virus might also be considered major if it is difficult to
contain and has high distribution.
EXAMPLE
The Dark
Avenger virus infects every 16th time the program
is run. A
random sector (or code section) of the hard drive is
overwritten each time the virus infects. The file writes
“Eddie lives…” in the place of the sector it
overwrites. Once
you find and rid yourself of the Avenger virus, you will
find that your backup files are corrupt because of the
“Eddie lives…”. |
