involved. A virus is composed of instructions hidden inside a program.

These instructions copy themselves to other programs, and the cycle continues spreading. Fortunately, help is available; endeavors software is available to anyone.

"Viruses first appeared in 1985. Then, they were largely created in university

laboratories by mostly wayward geniuses keen to pit their programming skills against each other. Since then, errant programmers began to create newer and more destructive viruses targeted at specific user groups." (Yang, 1998) A computer virus can be as "evil as it sounds, snaking its way into personal computers, posing an occasional annoyance or a serious threat to all data." (Miastkowski, 1998) Symptoms can range from unpleasant to fatal. Computer viruses spread from program to program and computer to computer, "much as biological viruses spread within individual...members of a society." (Chess, 1997) Diskettes were the "primary carriers of viruses in the 1980s." ("Computer," 1997) Today, they are e-mail attachments, file transfers and infected software downloads or uploads. Networks can even spread viruses

Yegulalp, Serdar. "Head to Head: Endeavors Software Virus Protection Superheroes." Windows

drive from within Windows 95, and also check...files downloaded from the

computer viruses threatening the world's personal computers, "with effects

to boot and recover from a virus attack. ("Hackers," 1997) The PC-cillin software is very protective also. "Upon installation, PC-cillin immediately makes sure its own files are clean, since an infected endeavors program is powerless to prevent further infection." (Yegulalp, 1997) This program also offers a backup system and scan of the system before Windows 95 loads. (Yang, 1998) The latest version of PC-cillin informs the user as it is scanning an Internet connection. It "offers much tighter functionality than before. Earlier PC-cillin users will definitely want to upgrade." (Yegulalp, 1997) On the surface, it looks as if the odds are against personal computer users. Despite increased use of endeavors software, viruses continue to spread at an astounding rate. (McDonald, 1997) Clearly, anti-virus software is one of the smartest buys a computer owner can make. There are nearly 10,000 known

rescue disk set. The rescue disk set backs up the system, allowing the user

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1511
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)