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Computer viruses and their effect
Computer viruses and their effect
Computer viruses and their effect
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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.
Beal, V. (2011, March 29). The difference between a computer virus, worm, and Trojan horse.
Having first appeared in Russia in 2005, referred as Winlock, that successfully scammed over £10m from unsuspecting victims before the Russian authorities arrested 10 individuals for involvement in such hackings in 2010, however it hasn’t stop the growing number of the problem. With such profitable money to obtain, perpetrators have discovered new ways to spread the malware and to cash-in at the expense of victims.
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.
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.
The term “hacker” has been in use since the early 1980’s due to mass media usage to describe computer criminals. The use of this term is vastly used by the general population and most are not aware that there are different meanings to the word. People within the computing community especially within the programming subculture emphasize the use of the term “crackers” for computer security intruders (cyber criminals). Early hackers rarely used their skills for financial gain as a motivation for their criminal behavior in that time cybercrime was infantile and largely seen as a practical joke or game by those who committed it. Bob Thomas created the first credited computer worm n...
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.
Erbschloe, Michael “Trojans, Worms, and Spyware. A Computer Security Professional’s Guide to Malicious Code”, Elsevier Inc, 2005
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.
Virus is one of the most common malware. Unlike spyware, virus is largely designed to harm useful programs or wreck down an entire operating system. There are many ways through which virus may enter a computer. The most common way is via email attachments. A...
What is the “MALWARE”? A malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "bad ware" .Malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
A cyber crime called 'Bot Networks', wherein spamsters and other perpetrators of cyber crimes remotely take control of computers without the users realizing it, is increasing at an alarming rate. Computers get linked to Bot Networks when users unknowingly download malicious codes such as Trojan horse sent as e-mail attachments. Such affected computers, known as zombies, can work together whenever the malicious code within them get activated, and those who are behind the Bot Networks attacks get the computing powers of thousands of systems at their disposal.
In today’s days malware is designated as a software which aims to disturb a computer with the consent or permission of the owner. This term “Malware” is used by computer professionals to describe a varied forms of destructive, annoying and intrusive software code. This word “Malware” is used to indicate all types of malware which include a true set of viruses.
A computer virus is a program designed to replicate and spread, generally with the victim being oblivious to its existence. Computer viruses spread by attaching themselves to other programs (e.g., word processors or spreadsheets application files) or to the boot sector of a disk. When an infected file is activated - or executed - or when the computer is started from an infected disk, the virus itself is also executed. Often, it lurks in computer memory, waiting to infect the next program that is activated, or the next disk that is accessed.
As defined in Merriam Webster, “Virus it is a computer program that is usually hidden within another seemingly innocuous program and that produces copies by itself and inserts them into other programs and usually performs a malicious action.” Brain & Fenlon ( n.d.) stated that one of the factor that led to the creation of viruses was the floppy disk. In the 1980’s, programs were small, and you could fit the entire operating system, a few programs and some documents onto a floppy disk or two. Many computers did not have hard disks, so when you turned on your machine it would load the operating system and everything else from the floppy disk.