Computer viruses were more of an urban myth than a real threat a few decades ago, but over the years, the situation has changed drastically. These days, malicious executable software programs are great menaces to anybody and anything from governments and big international corporations to small businesses and individual computer users. Created and programmed by anybody from experienced hackers to keen amateurs and even children, computer viruses are malware programs that – when executed – replicate by inserting copies of themselves into other computer programs, data files, or the boot sector of the hard drive. Viruses often perform some type of harmful activity on infected hosts, such as stealing hard disk space or CPU time, accessing private information, corrupting data, displaying political or humorous messages on the user’s screen, spamming their contacts, logging their keystrokes, or even rendering the computer useless. Needless to say, computer viruses are major annoyances and can lead to some dire consequences. Protect and inform yourself about these malicious bugs with these 25 interesting facts about computer viruses.
1)The very first computer virus was the Creeper Virus that was detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, in the early 1970s. It was an experimental self-replicating program
2)Currently, there are three basic categories of malicious software threats: viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. While the behavior of them differs, they are all built from the same basic instructions and "computer logic".
3)The typical malicious software author is male between fourteen and (twenty-five years of age). Only a few female virus writers have been known so far.
4)About 70% of virus writers work under a contract for an organized crime syndicate.
5)Melissa virus (March 1999) was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and many other large companies to turn off their e-mail systems until (the virus could be removed completely).
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