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virus |
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| Software used
to infect a computer. After the virus code is written, it is buried
within an existing program. Once that program is executed, the virus
code is activated and attaches copies of itself to other programs in
the system. Infected programs copy the virus to other
programs.
The effect of the virus may be a simple prank that
pops up a message on screen out of the blue, or it may destroy
programs and data right away or on a certain date. It can lie
dormant and do its damage once a year. For example, the
Michaelangelo virus contaminates the machine on Michaelangelo's
birthday.
An early but now almost unknown type of virus is a
boot virus, which is stored in the boot sectors of a floppy disk. If
the floppy is left in the drive when the machine is turned off and
then on again, the machine is infected, because it reads the boot
sectors of the floppy expecting to find the operating system there.
Once the machine is infected, the boot virus may replicate itself
onto all the floppies that are read or written in that machine from
then on until it is eradicated.
A virus cannot be attached to
data. It must be attached to a runnable program that is downloaded
into or installed in the computer. The virus-attached program must
be executed in order to activate the virus. Macro viruses, although
hidden within documents (data), are similar. It is in the execution
of the macro that the damage is done. Macro viruses constitute
almost all of the viruses currently in circulation.
File
attachments in e-mail messages are also suspect. If the attachment
is an executable file, it can do anything when it is run. Examples
of executables are files with extensions such as .BAT, .COM, .EXE,
.SCR, and .SHS (see dangerous
extensions and double
extension).
To date, more than 60,000 types of viruses
have been defined. However, 99% of the infections are from only a
few hundred variants found in the wild. Almost all of them are macro
viruses. See antivirus,
retrovirus,
in
the wild, quarantine,
macro
virus, e-mail
virus, behavior
blocking, polymorphic
virus, stealth
virus, worm,
boot
virus, vandal,
virus
hoaxes and crypto
rage.
Be Careful Out
There!
If you're on the Internet, obtain a
virus and vandal detector that looks for rogue files that you might
have downloaded. Before you run a shareware, public domain or
freeware program, check it with a virus detection program first. In
fact, to be 100% safe, every time you insert any new floppy disk or
CD-ROM into your computer from an unknown source, it should be
checked.
Who's Keeping
Track?
Since 1993, the WildList Organization
has been keeping track of virus attacks all over the world. For the
list and more information, visit www.wildlist.org.
Sample Viruses
The
style and purpose of viruses runs the gamet. The Sophos antivirus
company offers these brief synopses. For an exhaustive list of virus
explanations, visit www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses. See Sophos.
Love
Letter
The fastest spreading virus in history appears to have
been written by a resident of Manila in the Philippines. Sent via
e-mail in May 2000 with "I LOVE YOU" in the subject field, it
replicated itself to everyone in the user's Outlook address book and
then destroyed local files. Love Letter forced numerous
organizations to shut down their e-mail systems, as computer users
were far too willing to let love into their life.
CIH
(a.k.a. Chernobyl)
This virus, written by Taiwanese student
Chen Ing-Hau, triggers on the anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown.
The virus attacks the BIOS chip on the computer, effectively
paralyzing your entire PC.
Melissa
David L
Smith, 31, named his virus after a stripper he knew in Florida. His
virus created chaos in March 1999 when it spread around the world in
a day, clogging up e-mail systems and inserting quotes from Bart
Simpson into documents. Smith has admitted causing over $80 million
worth of damage to North American
businesses.
Nimda
Meaning "admin" spelled
backwards and launched in September 2001, this denial-of-service
worm flooded hard disks on more than a million clients and servers
on the Internet. Perhaps the most complex virus ever created, it
used various flaws in Microsoft's Web server and browser software to
unleash itself without the user's knowledge. See Nimda.
911
The
911 virus was seen in Houston, Texas. It takes over the computer
modem and dials emergency services.
Kylie
This
virus, fortunately rarely encountered, plays the pint-sized
Australian popster's song "Never
too late" through your PC
speaker.
SMEG
"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back
for breakfast! Unfortunately most of your data won't!" The Simulated
Metamorphic Encryption Generator viruses, written by the Black
Baron, trashed hard disks up and down the country in the mid-1990s.
The author, Christopher Pile, was a fan of the Red Dwarf series and
ended up being sentenced to 18 months in
prison.
Nuclear
This word macro virus adds a
paragraph to the end of every document you print protesting against
French nuclear testing in the South
Pacific.
Coffeeshop
Written by the Trident
virus writing gang based in the Netherlands, the Coffeeshop virus
displays a large cannabis leaf on the screen of your PC and urges
the government to legalize
marijuana.
Casino
Casino was written on the
island of Malta and plays Russian Roulette with your hard disk. If
you get the number wrong, you lose everything.
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