What They Are And One Reason Why People Make Them
Over recent years, computers have become synonymous with
viruses and viruses don’t show any signs of disappearing any time soon. In
recent news, LiveScience.com reported that “Before the month is even done,
April has set a record for virus e-mails.”[1]
In the past, we would be comfortable in telling new computer users not to worry
about viruses and that catching a computer virus is rare. Today, that would be
some of the worst advice we could give anyone. As reported in countless news
reports, computer viruses are rampant and they’re extremely worrisome. This
article will describe what viruses are and then point you in the direction of
some rather unique protection and prevention.
In short, a computer virus is a software program
designed to destroy or steal data. It attacks computers via distribution –
often unknowingly – through email attachments, software downloads, and even
some types of advanced web scripting. Viruses that destroy data are known as
Trojan horses, viruses that explode their attacks are called bombs, and viruses
that duplicate themselves are called worms. Some viruses are a combination of
each, however they can be further identified according to where they’re located
on a computer.
A virus originating from the boot sector of a computer
is a boot-sector virus and this nasty devil does its dirty work the moment a
computer is turned on. A virus that attaches itself to (infects) other programs
is a file virus and activates the moment that an infected program starts. File
viruses may also be referred to as parasitic viruses, however should a virus
work from both the boot-sector and from an infected program, the virus is then
known as a multipartite virus.
Why viruses exist remains a mystery, however we had
privy access to the mind behind a virus programmer who explained his motivation
behind his destructive inclinations. Apparently, this person had a deep grudge
against a popular online service which shall remain unnamed. In this hacker’s mind,
the online service failed to do a quality job in protecting children from
online smut and as retaliation, he created and distributed a virus to as many
file libraries of this service as he could. His intentions were to disable the
computers of the online service’s users so much that they wouldn’t be able to
connect for days. In his mind, the loss of connection meant loss of revenue for
the online service.
Although the malicious code that this person generated
may have worked for a small percentage of users, sufficed to say, the online
service continued on and still exists today. Despite his motivation or
intention, his efforts were null.
We wouldn’t be surprised to learn if other motivations
behind spreading viruses were similar to this person’s, but that doesn’t
justify the damage that viruses do. Innocent people become pawns for the evil
plans of others who’ve convinced themselves they’re doing the “right” thing.
To protect a computer from getting a virus, or clean a
virus from a computer system once infected requires the use of an antivirus
utility. But may be something else we can do. Perhaps we could make an effort
to educate the people who want put viruses into the public about ways to
display dissatisfaction with a service or product that don’t involve harming
innocent parties. In doing so, we just might reduce the number of virus news
stories and protect our own investments at the same time.
[1] Source: http://
news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070426/sc_livescience/recordsettingspameffortturnscomputersintozombies
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