What is a computer virus? A computer virus is a piece of malicious code that is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect such as corrupting a system or destroying data. Computer viruses are written with the sole intention of stealing data or crippling a system. The term computer virus is derived from and is in some sense analogous to a biological virus. The word virus itself is Latin for poison. Simplistically, biological viral infections are spread by the virus (a small shell containing genetic material) injecting its contents into a far larger organism’s cell. The cell then is infected and converted into a biological factory producing replicants of the virus. (Computer Viruses as Artificial Life, 2) A large majority of computer viruses are written by “notorious” computer hackers and they send out these viruses or just post them online. Following the first computer virus ever created codenamed “Creeper” in 1971, with the growth of information technology (IT) a lot of “script kiddies” (a person who uses existing computer scripts or code to hack into computers, lacking the expertise to write their own) and “black hats” (unethical hackers) tend to look for these viruses to “harness [the] abundance of information [to] manipulate it to their advantage” (Little Black Book, 6). There are a plethora of computer viruses out in the cyberspace world and majority of them attack personal computers (PCs). In 1997, an article published by Scientific American named “Fighting Computer Viruses” it was known that more than 10,000 viruses had appeared (by 1997 since 1971) and roughly about 6 new viruses were created per day. According to the latest virus definition file (file that keeps a record of all known/discovered ... ... middle of paper ... ...hnological Turf Wars, 164) Works Cited "Virus Definitions & Security Updates." Symantec Corp. Symantec Corp, 04 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "Grappling with the ZeroAccess Botnet." Endpoint, Cloud, Mobile & Virtual Security Solutions. Symantec Corp, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. Spafford, Eugene H. "Computer Viruses as Artificial Life." MIT Press Journals. MIT, Apr. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. Kephart, Jeffrey O., Gregory B. Sorkin, David M. Chess, and Steve R. White. "Fighting Computer Viruses." Scientific American 277.5 (1997): 88-93. Print. Johnston, Jessica R. "Situated Exclusions and Reinforced Power." Technological Turf Wars: A Case Study of the Computer Antivirus Industry. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2009. 1-233. Print. Ludwig, Mark A. "Introduction." The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses. Tucson, AZ: American Eagle Publications, 1996. 1-183. Print.
I decided to read the book by David Harley called Viruses Revealed. This book goes into great detail about the different kinds of viruses and virus mechanisms, the solutions to these viruses, studies on different cases of viruses and then the social aspects of viruses. In the first part of the book, Harley talks about the problems with viruses. A virus is a program that infects other programs to modify them. “Infecting means that a virus will insert itself into the chain of command” (Harley). The virus structure was defined into three different parts: Infection, Payload, and Trigger. The infection is defined as the way or ways in which the virus spreads. The payload is defined as what the virus does besides duplicating itself. Trigger is defined as the procedure that decides whether or not the payload is necessary. Harley also talks about the difference between damage versus infection. The major difference between the two is that many users have infected documents or applications on their computer. Whether or not those applications are run is the difference between the two. In part one Harley also converses about Trojan Horses. Trojan horses are normally known as a virus, but he shoots that down. Harley says that Trojan Horses are normally not viruses, but just a worm that goes from computer to computer. After talking about different kinds of viruses and worms, he goes into Anti-Virus softwares. There are two different kinds of anti-viruses. One being virus-specific. Virus-specific means that every time a virus is found on your computer, it is identified but not detected. Generic scanners do the opposite. Generic scanners detect viruses but do not identify them.
Computer viruses were first widely seen in the late 1980s. They were caused due to several reasons. The first factor was rapid growth of personal computers. Before this decade personal computers were not seen in many houses. They only computers used were expert computers which were locked in laboratories around the world. During the 1980’s Computers started to sell to several smaller business’s and homes after the release of the IBM PC in 1982 [1]. After its launch, personal computers slowly started spreading to businesses, homes and universities around the world.
There is a long history of the development of computer virus and its evolution has been in line with software and hardware technology advance. Viruses were written just for fun or for malicious purposes. When the operating system was developed, the virus was able to improve itself to live on new systems. Public attention was not drawn much by computer virus until it caused serious consequences.
There is also a set of programs that are related to viruses by virtue of their
Firstly, computers nowadays acquire many different types of infections. These infections range from viruses, to spyware and adware, to Trojan horses. The number of viruses in known existence exceeded 50,000 in 2001 and this number has grown daily since (“Number” 1). The good news here is the greater portion of viruses are not in circulation, but exist in archives and reference libraries for analysis (“Number” 1). Also, as for the most common viruses and those in virus libraries, anti-virus programs have a way to remove them. One difficulty users often face, is trying to figure out if a virus resides on their computer. Some viruses exist on a user’s computer without him / her knowing it for months before detection. Other viruses are immediately detectable and easily removed. Then the really nasty viruses make it apparent they’re on your
A computer virus is a software program that affects the computer operation and it can potentially damage the computer. A computer virus is attached to a program or a file which allows it to spread from one computer to another when the program is running. Most of the viruses are attached to an executable file which allows the virus to stay on the computer but cannot do any damage until you open or run the infected program. Viruses are capable of corrupting or deleting data from the computer. They can also infect other computers. Viruses can enter your computer in different ways such as, through infected email attachments and programs. You will not realize there is a virus until it has done the damage.
A computer virus is a relatively small program that attaches itself to data and program files before it delivers its malicious act. There are many distinct types of viruses and each one has a unique characteristic. Viruses are broken up into to main classes, file infectors and system or boot-record infectors.
“ Prevention is better than cure ”, if computer users are aware of Malware attacks, they may prevent those attacks . So, in this research paper i am going to focus on Malware and Protecting Against Malware.
In 1971, Bob Thomas has developed “The Creeper Virus”. It was an experimental self-replicating program. It infected DEC PDP-10 Computers to run the TENEX Operating System. The Reaper program was later developed to delete this virus.
Malicious code is a real danger to modern systems. Most systems nowadays do not work in isolation; they are more likely to be connected to other systems and sometimes they can even be dependent on them. Therefore an attack on one of the systems in the network is a potential attacking attempt to any other systems, with which it is interacting. Therefore, it is inevitable for any networked or Internet-connected computers to deal with malicious code attacks at some point. Businesses lose billions of dollars each year because of malicious code attacks. Responding to the attack and restoring all the data on the computers is a time-consuming and expensive task. It is a much better practice to try preventing it through organizing and maintaining effective defenses. However, it is important to keep in mind that there is no one general solution that can help to prevent all the attacks. Attackers are constantly looking for new ways to take advantage of systems’ vulnerabilities and find new ones. That’s why organizations have to not only defend themselves against existing attack methods, but also try to predict and prevent new attacking techniques. It means that computer and network security is a never-ending challenge and expense.
In 2002, computer virus attacks caused companies roughly $20 billion to $30 billion up from $13 billion in 2001. This number continues to grow as more computers are sold. Users must realize the risk of the internet and file sharing before the statistics can decline. Examples are peer-to-peer download software, instant messaging channels, and email. These examples sound like home user issues but the reality is that employees are always finding ways to use this software in the working environment. In the end, it jeopardizes the network and costs companies money. Software companies have developed ways to deal with computer viruses and email spam in an automated fashion. Some can be free for personal use and others are expensive intended for corporate level networks.
The paragraphs are mainly focused in four areas, the causes of computer viruses, the economic impacts on government intelligence nuclear, also stealing sensitive information. These are all critically affected by computer viruses or malware.
This report will look at viruses. It will look at what a virus is and what they do it will also look at why people create viruses and for what purpose. The report will also look at examples of famous well known viruses and the ways you can defend against viruses.
...uses, experts say, because the virus creators move too quickly. That is prompting startups and other companies to get creative about new approaches to computer security.
Because Symantec is the world's largest supplier of anti-virus technology, we are uniquely able to offer comprehensive virus protection options and service plans. As an introduction, we offer this white paper series. In concise text, graphs and illustrations, we will give you a overview of: