Definitions

A boot sector virus is a type of virus that infects the boot sector of floppy disks or the Master Boot Record of hard disks. The infected code runs...

Industry definition for the term Stealth Virus. A stealth virus is complex malware that hides itself after infecting a computer.

Industry definition for the term Web Filter. A Web filter, which is commonly referred to as "content control software", is a piece of software designed to restrict what websites a user can visit on his or her computer.

The Warhol Worm is a rapidly-replicating computer virus that can infect your system in as little as 15 minutes. Learn more about the virus and how to protect your computer.

Industry definition for the term Metamorphic Virus. A metamorphic virus is one that can transform based on the ability to translate, edit and rewrite its own code.

Industry definition for the term Macro Virus. A macro virus is a computer virus that alters or replaces a macro, which is a set of commands used by programs to perform...

A boot sector virus is a type of virus that infects the boot sector of floppy disks or the primary boot record of hard disks (some infect the boot sector of the hard disk instead of the primary boot record). The infected code runs when the system is booted from an infected disk, but once loaded it will infect other floppy disks when accessed in the infected computer. While boot sector viruses infect at a BIOS level, they use DOS commands to spread to other floppy disks. For this reason, they started to fade from the scene after the appearance of Windows 95 (which made little use of DOS instructions). Today, there are programs known as ‘bootkits’ that write their code to the primary boot record as a means of loading early in the boot process and then concealing the actions of malware running under Windows. However, they are not designed to infect removable media.