How to explain what a computer virus is to people who are not familiar with computers and programming

virus

I have to teach a group of non-CS students what computer viruses are. The course material contains only definitions and some details about what those viruses do. But those things are known to everyone who knows what a computer is.

I want to touch upon, in a non-technical way, the programming or technical side of a virus. The solution can be writing a program which non-programmers can understand or comparing what a computer virus does to a real world situation. Any thoughts, suggestions or examples for how can I go about it? Humorous answers are acceptable too.

Best Answer

I think that the similitude with biological system (from which the word virus has been taken from) is good.

Like biological viruses causes the cells behavior to be subverted, computer viruses do the same with computer programs.

They also have other similar behavior:

  1. both computer viruses and biological ones are self-replicant
  2. both can't live without an host system
  3. both are made by small pieces of information (DNA versus Binary Instructions)
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