computer virus- a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; "a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance" virus malevolent program- a computer program designed to have undesira...
also:filterable virus c :a disease caused by a virus 2 :an antigenic but not infectious material (as vaccine lymph) obtainable from a case of an infectious disease More from Merriam-Webster onvirus Thesaurus:All synonyms and antonyms forvirus ...
2. a disease caused by a virus. 3. a corrupting influence on morals or the intellect; poison. 4. a segment of self-replicating code planted illegally in a computer program, often to damage or shut down a system or network. [1590–1600; < Latin vīrus slime, poison; akin to ooze...
Your computer drive has a sector solely responsible for pointing to the operating system so that it can boot into the interface. A boot sector virus damages or controls the boot sector on the drive, rendering the machine unusable. Attackers usually use malicious USB devices to spread this comput...
Words You Always Have to Look Up Your vs. You're: How to Use Them Correctly Popular in Wordplay See All More Words with Remarkable Origins 12 Words Whose History Will Surprise You 8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments Birds Say the Darndest Things ...
For example, a heuristics-based product might use algorithms to detect behavioral patterns that are indicative of malware, rather than relying solely on virus definitions. Strong heuristics have become increasingly important because of advanced persistent threats that use encryption to conceal themselves ...
He stayed home sick with a virus for nearly two weeks. a corrupting influence on morals or the intellect; poison. a segment of self-replicating code planted illegally in a computer program, often to damage or shut down a system or network. ...
When a computer that has a virus makes a connection with another computer, for example by email, the virus can make copies of itself and move to the other computer.3 [countable] a program that sends a large number of annoying messages to many people’s mobile phones in an uncontrolled ...
A biological virus like HIV or the flu cannot reproduce on its own; it needs to hijack a cell to do that work for it, wreaking havoc on the infected organism in the process. Similarly, a computer virus isn’t itself a standalone program. It’s a code snippet that inserts itself into...
or it mayexploitsoftware vulnerabilities to infect a computer without the user doing anything. A virus may delete or modifyfileson your computer or cause other performance problems as it consumes processing and memory resources. It may also expose your computer to unauthorizedremote access, allowing ...