The Scope of the Problem
Malevolent code is easy to copy and modify. Some people do it just for
the warped thrill of having an impact on the world, albeit a negative
one. Others use viruses to corrupt their competitors or attack
government systems. There are hundreds of thousands of viruses “out in
the wild.” However, there are also many good Anti-Virus products
available to detect and disable viruses.
Anti-virus Software uses a library of virus signatures. These signatures
contain the phrases, codes, and events found in viruses, Trojan horses
and worms. The anti-virus software scans your files and email looking
for anything that matches the malicious junk. When the anti-virus
software finds a match, it disables the code so that it cannot run.
Usually, the disabled virus is placed in a quarantine folder.
Because new viruses are written every day, most anti-virus software programs
automatically update their virus libraries.
