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How can a computer virus affect a system's functionality?
By accelerating system boot time
By optimizing system updates
By causing software to malfunction or crash
By improving hardware performance
By causing software to malfunction or crash
A computer virus is a malicious software program designed to replicate itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this code executes, it disrupts system processes, leading to software malfunctions, unexpected crashes, or data corruption.
A computer virus is a malicious software program designed to replicate itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this code executes, it disrupts system processes, leading to software malfunctions, unexpected crashes, or data corruption.
A computer virus acts like a biological virus infecting a healthy cell; it forces the cell to stop its normal functions and dedicate all resources to replicating the virus until the cell eventually malfunctions or dies.
CRASH: Corrupts, Replicates, Alters, Sabotages, Hinders.
RtтАЛ=R0тАЛ├Чekt тАФ represents the exponential replication growth rate of a virus in a system, where k is the replication constant.
The virus attaches its executable code to legitimate system files or host applications using techniques like file injection. Once triggered, the virus instructions take control of the CPU cycles or memory allocation, diverting resources away from the legitimate application. This unauthorized redirection causes memory leaks, logic errors, or file system instability, ultimately resulting in a system crash.
Computer viruses require a host program to spread and execute.
Viruses are a subset of 'malware' (malicious software).
Symptoms include slow performance, freezing, and unexpected error messages.
Antivirus software uses signature-based detection to identify known viral code patterns.
Irreversible loss of critical system data.
Hardware failure due to excessive overheating from malicious background processes.
Security breaches leading to privacy loss.
Protection of sensitive information in banking systems.
System security audits.
Defense-in-depth architecture in networking.
Option A and D are incorrect because viruses consume system resources (CPU, RAM), which invariably leads to performance degradation, never improvement.
Option B is incorrect because viruses often disable system update mechanisms to maintain their persistent, undetected state within the operating system.
C is correct тАФ A computer virus injects malicious code that competes with legitimate system resources, leading to software instability and inevitable system crashes.
In competitive exams, always remember that 'malicious software' (malware) is designed to consume resources, so any option suggesting 'improvement' or 'optimization' is almost always a distractor.