Human Viruses and Computer Viruses A Comparison At one time or another, everyone has had a
virus like the common cold or the flu. You
know, where your body does not quite function as it should.
Your nose may be runny. You
might have a sick stomach or achy muscles.
Symptoms vary from person to person and from illness to illness.
Computer viruses are not
so different from human viruses. They
cause your computer to not function exactly as it should. The symptoms vary from virus to virus, and just as human
viruses can range in severity from being annoying to deadly, so can computer
viruses. It is often easiest to
learn about something by comparing it to something else that we are familiar
with. Since we can all relate to
human viruses and illness, the basic computer virus information is presented
here as a comparison.
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| Human Viruses | Computer Viruses Simplified | Computer
Viruses Technical |
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| What is a virus? | A human virus is a tiny package of genetic material that carries a code into the human cell and replicates itself once there. | A computer virus is a program that carries a code into the computer system and replicates itself once there. | A computer virus is any program that replicates itself to executable files so that its code is executed when the infected executable file is run. |
| What are the symptoms of a virus? | Human viruses can have symptoms as subtle as dizziness or as straight forward as a high fever. They may not be detectable at all for a time period after the initial infection. They may stay dormant in the body until triggered by something else like stress or change in body temperature or chemistry. | Computer viruses also have a variety of symptoms. It may only be a change in file size or as sudden as your screen melting away. They may show no symptoms until triggered by something like a another program file being run or a specific date. | When a system gets a virus, there is always a change in file size and system resources. Other symptoms may not show up until the virus has had ample time to spread. |
| How does a virus get into the human or the computer? | Human viruses can be transmitted in a variety of ways. They can be airborne and breathed in. They can be on surfaces and transmitted through contact with living or non-living objects. They can be passed through body fluids. | Computer viruses can be transmitted in a variety of ways. They can be on a floppy or compact disk and picked up when the disk is used. They can also be attached to an e-mail message. | Computer viruses copy their code into executable files from other infected files. They can also copy themselves into code through the boot sector of an infected floppy. |
| How does a virus spread itself throughout the body or computer? | Human viruses infect a cell and release numerous copies which infect other cells, which continues the process. | Computer viruses spread through a system by sending out multiple copies of its code to infect other programs. | One file gets an infection, at that point it can be memory resident and replicate itself anytime the computer is running, on non-resident and replicate when specific files are run. |
| What types or categories of viruses are there? | They can be sorted by size, shape, and how they exist. | They can be sorted according how or where they attack the computer, how they escape detection, and by the severity of the damage of the virus. | They are usually characterized by their Operating Environment, Algorithms, and Destructive Capabilities. |
| How damaging can a virus be? | Human viruses can be mildly irritating like causing a few sniffles or can be fatal causing death in a short time period. | Computer viruses can be mildly irritating like causing a key make a clicking sound when touched or can be fatal by causing the entire computer system to crash. | It can be anything from an error message to corrupting files and compromising the integrity of the system. |
| How can viruses be prevented? | Vaccines are currently the best way to prevent a viral infection. Many viruses do not have an antiviral vaccine so preventative measures such as good sanitary practices (avoiding contact with other’s body fluids, washing hands frequently) are necessary. | Immunizers (computer anti-virus programs) can be put on the computer to either block certain viruses from getting into the computer or to warn about an infection. There is no anti-virus program that can give 100% protection so preventative measures (rules to live by) are necessary. | Use an Anti-Virus program. Never open an EXE, BAT, or COM file from someone unless you are SURE it’s not a virus. Never open email attachments without scanning first. |
| How can viruses be gotten rid of? | Some medications are available to help reduce the symptoms of viruses, but generally the human immune system adapts to them. Some viruses cannot be gotten rid of. | Some computer viruses can be detected and cleaned off of the computer using an anti-virus program. The anti-virus program must be able to target the specific virus code in order to get rid of it. | Anti-Virus programs search for and try to remove any virus-like code's startup mechanism. They also delete any viral files. |
| How are viruses created? | Human viruses are DNA code (scientifically not alive) , that have assembled in a parasitic way to spread | Computer viruses must be programmed (coded) by a person. The person is purposely creating a problem for others. | Viruses are usually written in very powerful hard to write languages such as assembly or machine language by computer hackers. Recent email worms have been written in the more common "JavaScript" |
| How are viruses named? | Usually the scientist who discovers the virus names it. A scientific term that describes the virus may also be used. | The author of the computer virus makes a name for it that they find fit. | Usually somewhere within the code the author writes the name of the virus. Sometimes it is subtle, such as a small "Kak.A (c) v.2" |
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