Take a tour around my slideshow to learn more about viruses.

What is a virus? The history of the virus How big is the problem? How it effects society? What do different viruses do? How do viruses spread How do you get rid of viruses

A virus is a man-made internet program which was made to cause harm on personal computers and computer networks. Viruses can replicate themselves and can infect other computers and even pass security systems.

Viruses first started when people played games against each other and wrote viruses to try and infect the other person. In 1949 self-replicating programs started. In 1981 some of the first viruses started spreading through apple computers.

In 1983 Fred Cohen discovered that viruses can self- replicate and spread to other computers. In 1986 viruses could infect certain types of floppy discs. In 1987 the Lehigh file virus infected command.com files. In 1988 the Jerusalem virus effects.com and exe files and deletes any program run on that day. In 1990 one of the first Norton anti-virus programs came out. In 1991 the Tequila virus was the first virus to go world wide which made virus scanners hard to detect.

In 1992 there were 1300 viruses 420% more than in A virus making kit was invented. In 1994 the Good time sent to people if you opened the it could get rid of everything on your hard drive and does this every 6 to 12 months. In 1999 the Melissa virus was invented. It attaches itself to s and sends itself to about 50 people in your contact list. This virus spread faster than any other virus that had been made it was sent to approx 1 million people. Bubble Boy was the first worm made. You get it by opening an .

In 2000 the ILOVEYOU virus was sent out. It is like the Melissa virus. It deletes stuff on your hard drive and can sent itself to other computers. I could also give personal details to the person who made it. In 2001 the Nimda virus was made. It infected hundreds of thousands computers and was one of the most sophisticated viruses made. It hade 5 different methods of replicating itself and infecting other computers.

Viruses are a big problem. If you don’t have an anit-virus detector, it will be certain that you will have a virus on your computer. There are over 10,000 different viruses today which can effect your computer in different ways.

Viruses effect society because if a virus has eaten away through all your documents and the computer keeps crashing and there is nothing they can do except pay lots of money to get it fixed it would add to the same amount as buying a new computer. So either way they have to pay for a new computer which is a nuisance. It also effects society because important documents that can never come back can be destroyed and as soon as they put it on the computer with a virus there would be no point on putting it on a CD or floppy disc because you would just put the virus on the floppy/CD that will then be injected into your new computer.

There are many types of viruses that do different things. Some viruses may just sit on your computer until a certain date then it will start deleting files and crash your computer. Other viruses such as Trojan horses can work while playing a game but it can’t automatically replicate itself. Some viruses can send your personal details to the creator of that virus

There are different ways viruses can spread. Viruses such as the worm can self-replicate and send itself to 50 people’s computers on your list. Other viruses can attach itself to your s which will send to the persons computer. People write advertisements saying you have won 1 million dollars and if you click on the advertisement you can get a virus. Some viruses can be spread by putting a file on a disc with a virus and putting it on another computer.

If you have a virus on your computer and you want to get rid of it get an anti-virus software to get rid of any viruses on your computer that you have got from downloading things off the net or from other computers. You would have to use this software at least once everyday or viruses could be eating away.