1.1 Introduction
A computer virus is a piece of software which attaches itself to another program causing undesirable effect on the program. It is attached similar to the way in which biological virus affect other organisms. Today’s society has seen a dramatic increase in the use of computers. As a result users of personal computer today need to have comprehensive virus protection mechanisms to face the growing threats of computer viruses. Virus attacks on computer are more harmful that shows up more damage to the computer. Nowadays many computer viruses are designed to self-replicate and self-install over a very short period of time. They come encoded with specific instructions to destroy and advance through its host computer, and can affect a multitude of programs and applications very quickly.
Recognizing the symptoms of a computer virus can help to successfully remove it from the infected computer as quickly as possible; the sooner this is completed, the easier it will be to recover any documents or programs that may be damaged, and prevent the virus from further spreading.
After identification of typical factors which leads to computer virus attacks the possible solutions are put forwarded to PC users to surmount this virus attacks and for their future improvement in computer usage.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Research Questions, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the threat of attack by computer viruses is in reality a very big problem specifically attacks aimed at subverting computer security. This paper examines computer viruses as malicious logic in a research and development environment, relates them to various models of security and integrity, and examines current research techniques aimed at controlling the threats viruses in particular, and malicious logic in general, pose to computer systems.
Finally, a brief examination of the vulnerabilities of research and development systems that malicious logic and computer viruses may exploit is undertaken.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to explore the Impact of Computer Virus Attacks and It’s Preventive Mechanisms among Personal Computer (PC) Users. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the effect that computer viruses have had on computerized information among personal computer users;
- To suggest the possible preventive mechanism to safeguard their computer resources from virus attacks;
- To identify the reasons that led to virus attacks among the PC users; and
- To identify the degree of danger that some of these viruses from controlled laboratory tests pose to information storage.
1.4 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is the effect that computer viruses have had on computerized information among personal computer users?
- What are the reasons that led to virus attacks among the PC users?
- What is the possible preventive mechanism to safeguard their computer resources from virus attacks?
- What is the degree of danger that some of these viruses from controlled laboratory tests pose to information storage?
1.5 Significance of Study
This study is will be of immense help to everyone who has personal computer and connects to a network. It will guide against computer infection and gives protection against virus. It will also be useful to every computer user in general and the whole world at large.
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