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The Invention and Evolution of VirusesDirectron Scholarship 2008 Essay No. 35by Joe Lange Current School: University of Nevada, Reno Current Major/Degree: Master's Degree in Information Systems with a minor in Mathematics and a minor in Computer and Videogame Design Through the years, computers have evolved greatly. Programmers have invented new software and created new websites. But, there some things that programmers should never create and those are viruses. Viruses can be extremely harmful and cause serious software and hardware damage. Although not all viruses are of destructive nature, most are. Then there are viruses that cause neither software nor physical damage to the pc, but rather to the user's life. Welcome to the world of viruses. The name virus came from a person working on a computer relay for the Navy. They found a moth trapped between two relays, so that coined the term "bug". The first virus was created by a scientist that was trying to get information to stay in a computer's memory. He made the program able to self replicate, and that officially created the first computer virus in 1949 (Krebs, 1). It can be argued however that he did not create a virus because he was not using it for bad intentions. It is ironic how a virus was the foundation for memory storage in today's computers, which many viruses use. There are many kinds of viruses. There are also many different ways that they affect a pc. There are the types that do not necessarily cause damage to the pc physically, but rather cause emotional distress and irritation. This is typically called malware. Malware consists of adware, spyware, spam, hijackers, dialers and keyloggers. All of these do different things to a pc. Adware usually makes your web surfing unenjoyable by making pop ups of advertisements (Andrews, 1038). Most adware is easily removed with an adware removal program like ad aware, which is free. It can help to be prevented by using pop up blockers, which many are also free of charge. Spyware can potentially have more impact on a pc user. Spyware downloads onto the computer unknowingly and collects information like usernames and passwords and can transmit that information over the internet to identity thieves. It can be obtained be going to infected web sites or through an email attachment (Andrews, 1038). Spyware can also be easily removed from an infected pc through a spyware removal program such as Spybot, which is once again free. Most importantly is being aware of things that may contain spyware and not downloading them. It also helps to do spyware scanning on a regular basis to maximize the protection and minimize the threats. Another form of malware is spam. Spam is simply unwanted E-mail. It can be advertisements for malicious products. Sometimes the letters and wording are jumbled and do not even make sense. These are things that are trying to get user information on a free will basis like buying malicious products just to get the user's credit card information. Sometimes the buyer may not get the product that they wanted or that was advertised, if even at all. Most E-mail programs come with built-in spam blockers that separate those E-mails from the one's people actually want to read. Although, spam has become extremely deceptive in the ways that it gets people to fall victim it. A common spam may look like an E-mail from a valid bank like Wells Fargo and ask the person to verify things like their social security number or bank account number. One should never rely solely on the spam blocker of the E-mail they are using. Hijackers are a type of malware that typically do very little harm to the user's computer. The most common hijacker is the browser hijacker, which changes the homepage to something that the user does not desire. However, do not under estimate the power of a simple hijacker program. It can potentially send the browser to a harmful porn site for example, which can lead to further spyware and viruses. It is essential to do regular spyware and anti-virus scanning to prevent hijackers. One of the less common and dying types of malware is the dialer. This is not so common because of the fact that the internet has evolved through cable modem and DSL and not so much dial up, which requires a direct phone line to the computer. The damage these can do is still possible for people who use dial up internet. Dialers primarily disconnect the phone signal from the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and dials out to websites that charge for phone calls by the minute. This could devastate the user's income. For instance, if the dialer happened while the user was asleep, it could have racked up several hours of long distance phone calls costing the unwary customer untold amounts of money (Andrews, 1040). The last type of malware is the keylogger. It is mostly a type of spyware because of its behavior. It can be downloaded without the user's knowledge very easily. It does exactly what it sounds like it does: logs keystrokes. It will log every single key typed in a computer. This can be very dangerous. It can log things like credit card information during checkout of buying something online, websites that were viewed, E-mail messages, as well as passwords and usernames (Andrews, 1040). There are many types of viruses in the computer world. Some of the most common are mail bombs, logic bombs, worms and Trojan horses. Other types of viruses include boot sector virus, file virus, multipartite virus, macro virus, script virus, stealth virus, polymorphic virus, encrypting virus and rootkits. Although I will not go into detail about all of these, I will describe the basic ones. Mail bombs are simply viruses that contain very large amounts of memory, like several gigs. They usually many files within the E-mail file. When one tries to open this, it bogs the computer down. This generally only causes the user to have to power off their computer. But, if it was a replicating virus, then all of that memory could try to load during the boot process, which would cause the person to have to possible re-install windows. Logic bombs are pieces of code that are triggered at certain points in time or by certain things done by the pc user. For example, when the start button is clicked on, it could delete certain files in the hard drive. There are infinite combinations of things that a logic bomb virus can do. Some can just be annoying and others can cause damage to files and hardware (Andrews, 1040). The most one could hope for after getting a logic bomb is an annoying effect. Either way the virus works, you will know when you have gotten one. Worms are among the most common viruses out today. They work by replicating themselves onto other files and programs. They almost have to have some kind of host to load from. They do not do physical damage most of the time. Instead, they replicate themselves so rapidly that they bog everything down. They are most common on networks where users can be used as the host to keep speeding up the replication process (Andrews, 1039). The most effective way to keep these out of a pc is to have up-to-date antivirus protection and firewalls. Probably the most single common virus is the Trojan horse. It is based from the historic Trojan horse. It differs from the worm in that it does not need a host program. The point of its name is that it replicates itself as a legit program to get through the firewall and go undetected in the antivirus program. Once it is through those, it can start doing its damage. It can delete files and also unleash other viruses into the pc. Those are called downloaders. They can look like a pop up from Windows warning the user that they need to update something. Then, as soon as the clicks the OK button, that releases the Trojan horse to do its evil deed (Andrews, 1040). Aside from all of these threats that I have named, there are many more than what I have mentioned here. As always, the best way to protect you from these is to be updated in all security applications, most importantly the firewall and antivirus. It is also helpful to stay current on what is going on in the pc world. If there is something you do not know, research it. The more computer savvy you are the less likely you will fall victim to these things. Works Cited Andrews, Jean. Guide to managing and Maintaining Your PC. Thomson Course Technology. 2007. Krebs, Brian. A Short History of Computer Viruses and Attacks. 14 February 2003. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/2445. References: | Directron.com College Scholarship | |
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