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ESSAY SAMPLE ON "COMPUTER VIRUSES: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE" |
Computer Viruses: Past, Present and Future
In our health-conscious society, viruses of any type are an enemy. Computer viruses are
especially pernicious. They can and do strike any unprotected computer system, with
results that range from merely annoying to the disastrous, time-consuming and expensive
loss of software and data. And with corporations increasingly using computers for
enterprise-wide, business-critical computing, the costs of virus-induced down-time are
growing along with the threat from viruses themselves. Concern is justified - but
unbridled paranoia is not. Just as proper diet, exercise and preventative health care can
add years to your life, prudent and cost-effective anti-virus strategies can minimize
your exposure to computer viruses.
? A history of computer viruses
? Who writes viruses - and how they can reach you
? The early warning symptoms of virus infection
? The real numbers behind the growth of viruses and their costs
? How viruses work - and how virus protection can stop them
What, Exactly, Is A Computer Virus?
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.
What makes viruses dangerous is their ability to perform an event. While some events are
harmless (e.g. displaying a message on a certain date) and others annoying (e.g., slowing
performance or altering the screen display), some viruses can be catastrophic by damaging
files, destroying data and crashing systems.
How Do Infections Spread?
Viruses come from a variety of sources. Because a virus is software code, it can be
transmitted along with any legitimate software that enters your environment:
? In a 1991 study of major U.S. and Canadian computer users by the market research firm
Dataquest for the National Computer Security Association, most users blamed an infected
diskette (87 percent). Forty-three percent of the diskettes responsible for introducing a
virus into a corporate computing environment were brought from home.
? Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of infections occurred in a networked environment,
making rapid spread a serious risk. With networking, enterprise computing and
inter-organizational communications on the increase, infection during telecommunicating
and networking is growing.
? Seven percent said they had acquired their virus while downloading software from an
electronic bulletin board service.
? Other sources of infected diskettes included demo disks, diagnostic disks used by
service technicians and shrink-wrapped software disks - contributing six percent of
reported infections.
What Damage Can Viruses Do To My System?
As mentioned earlier, some viruses are merely annoying, others are disastrous. At the
very least, viruses expand file size and slow real-time interaction, hindering
performance of your machine. Many virus writers seek only to infect systems, not to
damage them - so their viruses do not inflict intentional harm. However, because viruses
are often flawed, even benign viruses can inadvertently interact with other software or
hardware and slow or stop the system. Other viruses are more dangerous. They can
continually modify or destroy data, intercept input/output devices, overwrite files and
reformat hard disks.
What Are The Symptoms Of Virus Infection?
Viruses remain free to proliferate only as long as they exist undetected. Accordingly,
the most common viruses give off no symptoms of their infection. Anti-virus tools are
necessary to identify these infections. However, many viruses are flawed and do provide
some tip-offs to their infection. Here are some indications to watch for:
? Changes in the length of programs
? Changes in the file date or time stamp
? Longer program load times
? Slower system operation
? Reduced memory or disk space
? Bad sectors on your floppy
? Unusual error messages
? Unusual screen activity
? Failed program execution
? Failed system bootups when booting or accidentally booting from the A: drive.
? Unexpected writes to a drive.
The Virus Threat: Common - And Growing
How real is the threat from computer viruses? Every large corporation and organization
has experienced a virus infection - most experience them monthly. According to data from
IBM's High Integrity Computing Laboratory, corporations with 1,000 PCs or more now
experience a virus attack every two to three months - and that frequency will likely
double in a year.
The market research firm Dataquest concludes that virus infection is growing
exponentially. It found nearly two thirds (63%) of survey respondents had experienced a
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