Boot Sector Infector

A boot sector infector is defined as a virus that infects the first section of a hard drive or floppy disk. The first known virus of this nature was called Brain. It displayed stealth-like tactics to avoid detection from both the system and its user. Many boot sector infectors have the ability modify the volume label of the storage drive. This virus is normally transmitted via floppy disk from those that have been shared. It may also be the result of a pirated software application. If an infected disk is left into a drive, the boot sector infector will be installed when the computer is started, infecting the local hard drive. The virus is able to cause considerable damage, as most operating systems will attempt to boot a computer from the first sector of the local hard drive or floppy disk. The best method for ridding a system of a boot sector infector is anti-virus software.