翻译；What Is A Virus?


1995-11-17

        Just as human viruses invade a living cell and then turn it into a factory for manufacturing viruses,computer viruses are small programs that replicate by attaching a copy of themselves to another program.
        Once attached to the host program,the viruses then look for other programs to "infect".In this way,the virus can spread quickly throughout a hard disk or an entire organization if it infects a local Area Network or a multiuser system.
        At some point--determained by how the virus was programmed--the virus attacks.The timing of the attack can be linked to a number of situations,including:a certain time or date;the presence of a particular user ID;the use or presence of a particular file;the security privilege level of the user;and the number of times a file is used.
        Likewise,the mode of attack varies.So-called"benign"viruses might simply display a message,like the one that infected IBM's main computer system last Christmas with a season's greeting.
        Malignant viruses,on the other hand,are designed to damage your system.One common,attack is to wipe out data,to delete files,or to perform a format of your hard disk.
        什么是计算机病毒?
        正如人体病毒入侵活的细胞并把它转变成制造病毒的工厂一样，计算机病毒程序都是一些小程序，通过把它们自己的一个副本附加到另一个程序上面进行复制。
        一旦附加到了一个主程序上，病毒程序就开始寻找其它程序进行“感染”。这样，病毒就很快地散布到整个硬盘，如果病毒感染了一个局域网或者一个多用户系统。那么就要散布在一个组织内。
        在某个点上(由病毒程序的设计确定的)病毒程序发起攻击。攻击的时间可以与多种情况联系起来，包括某个时间或日期，特定用户识别符的出现，特定文件的使用或出现，用户的安全保密等级和一个文件使用的次数。
        同样，攻击的方式也是多种多样的。所谓的“良性”病毒可能只是简单地显示一个消息，去年圣诞节受感染的IBM主要计算机系统显示节日问侯这样的病毒程序。
        另一方面，恶性病毒被设计出来破坏系统。一种常见的攻击是消除数据，删除文件，或者在你的硬盘上进行格式化。
 
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