A virus is a piece of software code created to perform malicious activities and hamper resources of a computer system like CPU time, memory, personal files, or sensitive information.
Mimicking the behaviour of a biological virus, the computer virus spreads on contact with another system, i.e. a computer virus infects other computer systems that it comes into contact with by copying or inserting its code into the computer programs or software (executable files). A virus remains dormant on a system and is activated as soon as the infected file is opened (executed) by a user.
Viruses behave differently, depending upon the reason or motivation behind their creation. Some of the most common intentions or motives behind viruses include stealing passwords or data, corrupting files, spamming the user’s email contacts, and even taking control of the user’s machine.
