ABSTRACT
Computer viruses and worms are characterized by their ability to self-replicate. The modern computer virus was conceived and formalized by Fred Cohen as a USC graduate student in 1983. Cohen wrote and demonstrated the first documented virus in November 1983.[1] Like biological viruses, computer viruses reproduce by taking advantage of the existing environment. A biological virus consists of single or double-stranded nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein shell (capsid). The capsid gives specificity to a bond with those particular hosts with matching surface receptors, while the inner nucleic acid gives infectivity or potency to subvert the infected host’s cellular machinery. A virus is incomplete and inactive outside of a living cell but becomes active within a host cell by taking over the host’s metabolic machinery to create new virus particles that spread the infection to other cells.
