Viruses on the World Wide Web

Blog Entry

70-643 Publishing on the World Wide Web

Dr. Anthony Stanton

Carlijn Valk

Viruses on the World Wide Web

What is a Virus?

Viruses are unauthorized computer programs that are capable of spreading from one computer to another by attaching itself to either a file or other program. Because most files or programs that viruses are attached to are executable files, a virus can exist in a computer, dormant, till the user actually opened the infected file or ran the infected program. Some computer viruses are more malicious then others. Some viruses can take sensitive information off of your computer or seriously reduce the computers productivity or damage data. Often people confuse viruses and other forms of malware, because in some cases they act in similar ways.  The term malware includes a wide variety of unauthorized, computer harming programs not all of which function in the same way as a virus. A worm, which is very frequently confused with viruses, functions much like a virus only it, unlike a virus, does not need any human help to spread it. Unlike a virus that needs the user to open the infected file or run the infected program, because worms take advantage of information on your computer to duplicate itself and send its self to a lot of different computers. Trojan horses are also often confused with viruses because like viruses they are attached to useful or legitimate seeming file such as helpful looking software updates. When run on your computer however the Trojan horse can either delete important files or open a back door to your computer giving a hacker access to all your personal or sensitive information. Trojan horses are not viruses though because they cannot spread themselves from one computer to another computer.

When did viruses first start spreading?

Computer viruses only really came around the 1980s when home desktop units became more affordable and thus more popular. One of the very first viruses was allegedly created by a 15-year-old high school student as a prank in 1982. This early computer virus was called Elk Cloner, written for Apple II systems, was not particularly malicious, but it could in some cases over write reserved space on some floppy disks. Its only intended purpose was to display a poem every 50h boot. The virus spread by implanting itself into the memory of the computer from an infected floppy. Then when a non-infected floppy was inserted into the infected computer the virus would infect that floppy and consequently any other computer that it was inserted into.

What is the purpose of Viruses?

Though this early virus created as a prank was not intended to directly harm the computer or user, today there are very harmful computer viruses circulating the online community. The purpose of these viruses varies. Some perform identity theft, overload a server, occupy the control function of a strangers hard drive, and some are even born out of an intellectuals simple desire to prove their proficiency at their craft. The Internet is littered with untrustworthy downloadables and sketchy updates but most computer users protect them selves from viruses and other forms of malware with firewalls and antivirus scanners.

In future the battle between Viruses and those who protect people against Viruses will continue as both parties improve their skill and strategy.

Clearly viruses have come a long way from copying themselves off of floppy disks, and hackers have, too, developed their skill and the complexity of the viruses they write. So protective software programmers too have developed their skill in preventing these malicious attacks from viruses. It seems likely that in the future the computer community will continue to be plagued by various attempts at virus infiltrations of our private systems but similarly the systems in place to protect users from these malicious viruses will keep in proving and thus the battle between software hackers and software protectors will continue as an ever lasting struggle between good and evil.