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Article: Computer Virus
- Article from:
- World of Forensic Science
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Computer Virus
As with other computer-based applications,
forensic science
can be compromised by agents that alter or disable computers, such as computer viruses.
A computer virus is a program or segment of executable computer code that is designed to reproduce itself in computer memory and, sometimes, to damage data. Viruses are generally short programs; they may either stand alone or be embedded in larger bodies of code. The term virus is applied to such code by analogy to biological viruses, microorganisms that force larger cells to manufacture new virus particles by inserting copies of their own
genetic code
into the larger cell's DNA. Because DNA can be viewed as a ...