Computer Virus

The word VIRUS is different from the "medical virus". It is the abbrivation of "Victor Information Resources Under Seage".

The term "virus" was first used in an academic publication by Fred Cohen in his 1984 paper Experiments with Computer Viruses, where he credits Len Adleman with coining it. However, a mid-1970s science fiction novel by David Gerrold, When H.A.R.L.I.E. was One,includes a description of a fictional computer program called "VIRUS" that worked just like a virus (and was countered by a program called "ANTIBODY"); and John Brunner's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider describes programs known as "tapeworms" which spread through a network for deleting data. The term "computer virus" with current usage also appears in the comic book "Uncanny X-Men" No. 158, published in 1982. And even earlier, in 1973, the phrase "computer virus" was used in the movie Westworld to describe a malicious program that emerged in the computer system of the theme park. Therefore, we may conclude that although Cohen's use of "virus" may, perhaps, have been the first "academic" use, the term has been used earlier.The term "virus" is often used in common parlance to describe all kinds of malware (malicious software), including those that are more properly classified as worms or trojans. Most popular anti-viral software packages defend against all of these types of attack.Viruses cause much damage to computers, today worse than before. A good way to stop viruses,is to keep a healthy firewall,and not let anyone put their own floppy disks, or cd's in your home computer.