Things

Computer Viruses

The dreaded computer virus. The thought of getting one of these strikes fear into the most stout hearted of us. But why would anyone write one of these virus programs ? As a person that has experienced having a virus several times over the last few years I am starting to believe in capital punishment for these people, just kidding. Seriously though, these viruses can cost the economy billions of dollars of added costs to the products we use every day. The worst part of this is the virus protection we use doesn't always help. Computer viruses are so effective that the governments of the world are developing computer viruses as weapons. This is a great weapon for the smaller countries too, because it is relatively cheap and potentially destructive. Just think if an undetectable computer virus was introduced into the phone company computers, woops there goes the communications. How many of us with our personal computers have spend hours and days trying to restore our computers to their previous status ? Just think of trying to do the same think at the phone company with their myriad of computers and computer equipment, no small task I would say.

A computer virus is a piece of computer code that can replicate itself many times over or destroy computer code. Not all computer viruses are harmful, some just leave annoying messages on your screen, while others can wipe out your drives. Here are some virus types:

BOOT SECTOR VIRUS - It effects the section of a disk or hard disk that contains operating system and file information. Each time you start your PC with an infected disk in your drive, the virus can spread.

FILE INFECTOR VIRUS - Some file infector viruses infect executable files. The file infector virus can get control when the program is first executed. In most cases, the file infector virus will return control to the original program after it has completed its own execution. File infector viruses replace or attach themselves to files with certain extensions such as “.COM” and “.EXE”. Programs become infected when file infector viruses are executed with the virus in memory. Operate without revealing their presence. Some attack on a certain date. To remove infected files of the file infector virus is to remove and reinstall the affected software.

MACRO VIRUSES - Macro viruses are programs written in the Macro language, which is provided with some software applications. To spread, Macro viruses exploit the capabilities of the Macro languages to transfer themselves from one infected file to another. First discovered in 1995. Infected documents created with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Infects documents, spreadsheets, and templates.

COMPANION VIRUS - A companion virus is a virus that creates a new program with the same file name as an existing program, creates this in a different place or gain’s a different file type, so that typing the program's name on the command line causes the virus program to be executed instead of the original program.

PARASITIC VIRUSES - A type of file that changes the contents of the target file while infecting it. The original contents of the file will be completely or at least partly unusable.

POLYMORPHIC VIRUS - A virus that changes its telltale code segments so that it "looks" different from one infected file to another, making the polymorphic virus more difficult to find. Keeps moving to fool virus scanners.

MULTIPARTITE - Multipartite viruses usually infect both boot records and files. Multipartite viruses spread pretty easily. Variations are polymorphic virus and stealth virus. Most difficult to detect and remove.

STEALTH VIRUS - A stealth virus is a virus that actively seeks to conceal itself from discovery or defends itself against attempts to analyze or removes itself. The stealth virus temporarily hides itself so it can't be seen by virus scanners.

Some people accuse the Anti Virus companies of writing viruses and releasing them to further the sales of their products. I don't think they have to do that, there are plenty of viruses around to keep them profitable. The guess is about 10 to 15 new viruses per day.

Davil L. Smith, 33, was the author of the infamous Melissa Virus. The Melissa virus attacked the flaws in Microsoft Outlook. The damage was in excess of $80,000,000. This was caused by clogging up corporate email systems. He was sentenced to 20 months in jail and a fine of $5000.

"Despite the fact there have been findings of 3 female virus creators, the typical virus creator is a single male, aged 14 to 24," says Symantecs' Carey Nachenberg, the Architect and Chief Researcher at SARC and widely believed to be the premier person in the world at dealing with viruses.

Three Dutch teenagers developed a worm virus that changes your browser's home page and then executes taking you to four different porn sites. They claim they did this to demonstrate a new way of advertising.

How can a person protect themselves from the virus threat ? Here are some suggestions:

Use Anti Virus software - Any good brand is about the same. Just make sure it is updated regularly
Use a firewall - software, hardware or both, that make it difficult to get to someone's computer
Enable viewing of file extensions - become familiar with the types and if you see a strange one delete it
Don't accept email with attachments - the can easily a virus
Disconnect from the Internet - when you are not using your computer turn it off if possible
Do regular backups - very helpful if you get wiped out by a virus
Create a boot disk - sometime this is the only way you can restart windows after a virus attack
Disable Email Scripting - scripts can contain viruses or do malicious things to your computer
Keep program patches up to date - patches contain fixes for software problems that viruses may seek out
Keep a copy on disk or CD of your desktop and important directories- It is nice to know what you had on there so if you have to reinstall programs you know which ones to install
Use Odd and Even Date Disks for backup - When backing up use 2 sets of disks or CDs. One for Odd day backups the other for Even day backups. If something happens to one set you always have the other.
Enable the Macro Virus Protection - Do this when you run ALL Microsoft applications.
For the extremely worried - don't use windows, use UNIX or use an obsolete machine like Amiga, but don't expect to find the same software.

.The Ethan virus is a Word 97 virus that kills off other competing viruses. This was the first virus to eliminate the competition before doing it dirty work.

The new wireless systems are just as vulnerable to a virus as is your PC. Even the cell phones as they get more capable with larger memories and Internet connections may become a target. One of those tones you download may someday be a virus. Will viruses ever be completely wiped out ? I think not. As long as human nature remains the same so will the virus threat.