Computer Viruses

Introduction

Computer virus have become todays headline news With the increasing use of the Internet, it has become easier for virus to spread Virus show us loopholes in software Most virus are targeted at the MS Windows OS

Definition

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.

Overview

Background How they spread Symptoms Classifying Viruses Examples Protection/Prevention Conclusion

Background

There are estimated 30,000 computer viruses in existence Over 300 new ones are created each month First virus was created to show loopholes in software

How they spread

A virus runs first when a legitimate program is executed. The virus loads itself into memory and looks to see if it can find any other programs on the disk.

Virus through the Internet

Today almost 87% of all viruses are spread through the internet Transmission time to a new host is relatively low, on the order of hours to days Latent virus

Symptoms of Virus Attack

Computer runs slower then usual Computer no longer boots up Screen sometimes flicker PC speaker beeps periodically System crashes for no reason Files/directories sometimes disappear

Classifying Virus - Categories

Stealth Polymorphic Companion Armored

Classifying Virus - Types

Trojan Horse Worm Macro Malware And others

Trojan Horse

A Trojan Horse is a computer program that appears to perform one function while actually doing something else, such as inserting a virus into a computer system or stealing a password.

Worms

Spread over network connection Worms replicate First worm released on the Internet was called Morris worm, it was released on Nov 2, 1988.

Macro

Specific to certain applications Comprise a high percentage of the viruses Usually made in WordBasic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Microsoft shipped Concept, the first macro virus, on a CD ROM called "Windows 95 Software Compatibility Test" in 1995

Malware

A Malware is a set of instructions that run on your computer and make your system do something that an attacker wants it to do.

Protection/Prevention

Knowledge Proper configurations Run only necessary programs Anti-virus software

Conclusion

You know more about virus and how: viruses work through your system to make a better virus Have seen how viruses show us a loophole in popular software Most viruses show that they can cause great damage due to loopholes in programming