Simply stated, a computer virus is a computer
program written by a person (not always, but usually, a jerk) who
designed it to spread to as many computers as possible.
This definition seems simple enough, but
indulges me. I’d like to zero in a bit further, to clarify some issues and to
dispel some misunderstandings:
Computer program: A virus is nothing more than a set of instructions,
written in a high-level programming language, such as Visual Basic, C, C++, or
Java, translated into “native” instructions (a long list of ones and zeros) that
are used by the computer’s CPU.
