Computer Crime - Virus Defense

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Computer Crime - Virus Defense

I need to research 2 different specific viruses (e.g., the iloveyou virus) and describe the following: b. What damage might the virus do? c. Give the complete web addresses of where you found this information.

A virus is a computer program file capable of attaching to disks or other files and replicating itself repeatedly, typically without user knowledge or permission. Some viruses attach to files so when the infected file executes, the virus also executes. Other viruses sit in a computer's memory and infect files as the computer opens, modifies, or creates the files. Some viruses display symptoms, and others damage files and computer systems, but neither is essential in the definition of a virus; a non-damaging virus is still a virus.

There are computer viruses written for several operating systems including DOS, Windows, Amiga, Macintosh, Atari, UNIX, and others. McAfee.com presently detects more than 57,000 viruses, Trojans, and other malicious software. Also see: boot sector infector, file viruses, macro virus, companion virus, worm.

Virus Hoaxes Virus hoaxes are not viruses, but are usually emails warning people about a virus or other malicious software program. Some hoaxes cause as much trouble as viruses by causing massive amounts of unnecessary email.

Most hoaxes contain one or more of the following characteristics:

* Warnings about alleged new viruses and their damaging consequences
* Demands that the reader forward the warning to as many people as possible
* Pseudo-technical "information" describing the virus
* Bogus comments from officials: FBI, software companies, news agencies, etc.

If you receive an email message about a virus, check with a reputable source to ensure the warning is real. Click here to learn about hoaxes and the damage they cause. Sometimes hoaxes start out as viruses and some viruses start as hoaxes, so both viruses and virus hoaxes should be considered a threat.

Virus 1: FILE VIRUS: File viruses usually replace or attach themselves to COM and EXE files. They can also infect files with the extensions SYS, DRV, BIN, OVL, and OVY. File viruses may be resident or non-resident, the most common being resident or TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) viruses. Many non-resident viruses simply infect one or more files whenever an infected file runs. These are also called parasitic viruses, file infectors, or file infecting viruses.

Virus 2: MICRO VIRUS: A macro virus is a malicious macro. Macro viruses are written in a macro programming language and attach to a document file such ...