Surprising Similarities Between Computer and Medical Viruses

Computer viruses weren't named "viruses" for no reason. Computer viruses actually bare some striking similarities to medical viruses. We've also come to treat them a lot like medical viruses. However, many people still aren't aware of the details of computer viruses, or just how similar to medical viruses they actually are.

Before we get into the similarities between computer viruses and medical viruses, it is important to note just what a computer virus is. It is also important to differentiate between a computer virus and a computer worm. A computer virus is a piece of software that is designed to attach to a wide variety of programs. This attachment causes an array of different problems and generally corrupts files on any particular drive that is exposed to the software. No problem for you, right? You aren't in contact with any virus software. Well, that's not exactly true. Like medical viruses, there are a great many ways that computer viruses spread. Several examples of ways in which your computer can contract a virus is through any number of downloading devices or downloaded files, shared disk drives or cds, e-mails, friend websites, etc...

The differences between worms and viruses is that a worm can replicate in the system, however, they don't infect other program files. Instead, worms create copies of themselves within your system and send out copies of themselves to other computers which are in contact with you (via e-mail or other contact). While these worms won't attack other program files, they can cause significant problems within your system and should be treated just as seriously as a computer virus.