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.
Malicious code, also known as malware, installed on a computer provides an attacker with the control over this machine. Therefore, malware can be defined as “a set of instructions that run on your computer and make your system do something that an attacker wants to do”. It is more common to see malicious code to be implemented in binary executable files. However, it can be implemented in almost any computer language. Attackers have used a huge number of scripting languages, word processing macro languages and a h...
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...he Trojan horse, users should be familiar with all the programs that should normally run on their systems. Once there is an addition or alteration, it is easy to notice and investigate. Another technique that is often used by attackers involves using wrapping programs, that are combining both malicious and original code. Once run on the victim’s computer the program first installs malicious code, and then executes the original code.
Works Cited
Erbschloe, Michael “Trojans, Worms, and Spyware. A Computer Security Professional’s Guide to Malicious Code”, Elsevier Inc, 2005
Nazario, Jose “Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms”, Artech House Computer Security Library, 2004
Skoudis, Ed, Zeltser, Lenny “Malware: Fighting Malicious Code”, Prentice Hall, 2003
Zesheng Chen, Lixin Gao, Chuanyi Ji “On Effectiveness of Defense Systems Against Worms”
Beal, V. (2011, March 29). The difference between a computer virus, worm, and Trojan horse.
The history of cybercrime goes back to 1971 and the first computer virus called the Creeper which was created by Bob H. Thomas, who was a BBN engineer (Dalakov, Meltzer, and Phillips). BBN which stands for Bolt, Beranek and Newman, is now Raytheon BBN Technologies (“About”, Dalakov). A computer virus is a program that is created to cause damage to a computer or perform other malicious acts (204). The Creeper virus was designed to infect the ARPANET network. The ARPANET, which stands for Advance Research Projects Agency was set up by the U.S. Government as an agency in 1969 to provide a network of computers that would connect various academic and research organizations; it was the predecessor of the Internet (“Internet”, Morley, and Parker).
News of source code theft jolted the software industry on February 12, 2004.2 Cyber criminals had stolen source code from Windows 2000 and Windows NT4.0. Windows 2000 and NT are the platforms on which the widely used home operating system of today, Windows XP, is based on. Luckily, only a small portion of code was stolen. Not nearly enough to build the entire Windows operating system. Through the use of peer-to-peer networking, the code was distributed in an underground hacker network. Eventually the source was spread onto public-access web sites, by which Microsoft confirmed the code was, indeed, real Windows code.
In today’s rapidly expanding computer world, growing demands for functionality under shorter time frames have become common place. Software growth has also provided newer economic rewards and possibilities for many companies. As software has become more pervasive in function and usage, security problems regarding the products has become a real issue. Viruses, worms, and hackers have become more dangerous as computers have become more connected and require more complex software. Software, unfortunately, will always be subject to flaws and bugs. Software coding is a distinctly human process and hence subject to human error. It is precisely such errors prevalent within crucial software that can be exploited by malicious individuals. The presence of such hackers is an unwelcome and unfortunate reality; it is the responsibility therefore, of software creators to take into account potential security risks in creating their products. However, reducing security risks means more resources and time spent in a product. For commercial companies, the dilemma exists between providing a safe product and protecting their bottom line. Nonetheless, practical solutions exist for providing security to the software user, involving responsible usage from the user as well as an informative approach from the software companies.
Stallings, W., & Brown, L. (2012). Malicious Software. In Computer security: Principles and practice (2nd ed., pp. 200-241). Boston: Pearson.
“Monitoring security would help organizations to minimize the window of exposure to risks and manage better their entire security process” (Priescu & Nicolaescu, 2008). Malware intrusion in businesses is costly and the outcomes are endless. One of the most efficient ways for businesses to protect themselves from malware is to have a prevention protocol. The first step in the recommended protocol is to identify vulnerabilities on networked systems. By doing this, internal and external risks are understood. This process must be continuous since vulnerabilities are changing constantly. Examples are software vulnerabilities, which are corrected by the vendors through the release of updates or patches, and incorrect system configurations like operating system-related or
Malicious software in short known as Malware. It is also known as computer Contaminant. Similar to biological parasite, malware also reside in a Host. Malware will get installed on host without user’s consent. Generally a software is considered malware based on the intent of the creator...
...as found in a digital photo frame. Another Trojan horse known as Torpig affects Windows by turning off anti-virus applications.
“A computer security risk is any event or action that could cause a loss of or damage to computer hardware, software, data, information, or processing capability” (Shelly). One of the most common risks is a computer virus. A virus can change software on a computer for the purpose of spreading itself to other files. This can cause failure of a program or even the operating system itself. Another common threat is known as a worm. “A worm is a program that copies itself repeatedly, for example in memory or on a network, using up resources and possibly shutting down the computer or network” (Shelly). These computer viruses and worms are launched in four basic ways: when a user opens an infected file, runs an infected program, boots the computer with infected removable media inserted in a drive or plugged in a port, or connects an unprotected computer to a network. A very common way these viruses and worms spread is as e-mail at...
There are hundreds of thousands of viruses in the world and they usually designed for different purpose or objectives. Most of the computer viruses written in the early and mid-1980s were limited to self-reproduction and had no specific damage routine built into the code, but after more and more programmer acquainted with virus programming, they made viruses that can modify the data or even destroy them on infected computer. A co...
In today’s information technology world, computer viruses or malware are huge problems for computer users. Viruses are generally referring to different types of Malicious software that are known as Trojans, adware, and spyware and worms. Thus individually they function differently, and try to damage the software on the computer, which sends information from the computer used to an outside source over the internet. Frederick B. Cohen (1991) defined the terms of computer virus as a ‘program that can infect other programs by changing them to include a possibly evolved copy of it ' (Frederick B, A Case for Benevolent Viruses 1991). A Computer virus spreads from one computer to another through copying it to a current executable code and this will result in being executed when the code has been attached to the program while it is running. Furthermore, by infecting property it is easy for the computer systems and networks used by the authorize...
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.
The advantages of technology and the internet have led more criminals to use cyberspace to commit crimes. The threat of cybercrime is increasing as globalization continues to spread across the world. While the impact of globalization has led to amazing, new discoveries throughout the world, Internet connectivity has also made cybercrime easier. America and the rest of the world have become more reliant on technology and use it in more aspects of their lives, technology-users make themselves more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Globalization and the growing use of computers in the world have given people a motive to learn more about computing and become more knowledgeable as programmers. As these people learn more, there is a risk that they will use their new intelligence to commit cybercrimes.
...h the threat of “Mobile Malware” looming in the air, the desire to give the general public fair warning has never been greater. This paper was intended to provided that knowledge the general public needs and will reinforce the topic to those who were already aware. The history of malware gave you a look into the not so distant past. The discussion of technical examples of malware was intended to show you how rapidly the threat is developing along with the statistics of malware’s current expansion, and the future examples of malware and research showed you concepts that were unimaginable to the common electronic consumer. The majority of malware was originally designed to be a practical joke, but as we can see from the ever growing desire for malicious intent, the evolution of malware has followed suite. We can only hope that the growing need for security can be met.
Giacomazzo, Bernadette R. “OpenSSL Heartbleed Computer Virus Fix and Security: How to Protect Yourself from the Latest Internet Bug”. Latin Post. 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.