Virus

A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer
without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All
computer viruses are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over
again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly
use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus
is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.
The origin of viruses, it was in 1949 that Mathematician John Von Neumann described
self-replicating programs which could resemble computer viruses as they are known today.
However, it was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that
decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce
every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players' computers. The creators
of this peculiar game also created the first antivirus, an application named Reeper, which could
destroy copies created by Core Wars.

However, it was only in 1983 that one of these programmers announced the existence
of Core Wars, which was described the following year in a prestigious scientific magazine: this
was actually the starting point of what we call computer viruses today.

There was an event that changed the virus scenario worldwide: the massive use of the
Internet and e-mail. Little by little, viruses started adapting to this new situation until the
appearance, in 1999, of Melissa, the first malicious code to cause a worldwide epidemic,
opening a new era for computer viruses.

What is a computer virus?

Designed to relentlessly replicate, computer viruses infect your programs and files, alter
the way your computer operates or stop it from working altogether. Its estimated that the
Conficker virus infected more than 10 million computers in 2009. Tens of thousands of
computer viruses now operate over the Internet, and new computer viruses are discovered
every day.

How does a computer virus find me?

Even if youre careful you can pick up computer viruses through normal Web activities
like:
Sharing music, files or photos with other users
Visiting an infected Web site
Opening spam email or an email attachment
Downloading free games, toolbars, media players and other system utilities
Installing mainstream software applications without fully reading license agreements

What does a computer virus do?

Some computer viruses are programmed to harm your computer by damaging
programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard drive. Others simply replicate themselves or
flood a network with traffic, making it impossible to perform any internet activity. Even less
harmful computer viruses can significantly disrupt your systems performance, sapping
computer memory and causing frequent computer crashes.

What are the symptoms of a computer

virus?
Your computer may be infected if you recognize any of these malware symptoms:

Slow computer performance

Erratic computer behavior
Unexplained data loss
Frequent computer crashes

Arming yourself with the best computer

virus protection?
Make sure that you have the best security software products installed on your
computer:
Use antivirus protection and a firewall
Update your operating system regularly
Increase your browser security settings
Only download software from sites you trust. Carefully evaluate free software and file-sharing
applications before downloading them.
Practice safe email protocol:
Don't open messages from unknown senders
Immediately delete messages you suspect to be spam
An unprotected computer is like an open door for computer viruses. Firewalls monitor Internet
traffic in and out of your computer and hide your PC from online scammers looking for easy
targets. Products like Webroot Internet Security Essentials and Webroot AntiVirus with Spy
Sweeper provide complete protection from the two most dangerous threats on the Internet
spyware and computer viruses. They thwart threats before they can enter your PC, stand guard
at every possible entrance of your computer and fend off any computer virus that tries to enter,
even the most damaging and devious strains.

Top 9 Computer Viruses

No. 01 - Storm Virus

Storm gets its name from the trap that is its method of infection.
Starting in early 2007, users began receiving emails with the subject line, "230 dead as storm batters
Europe," and a link to the story.
Don't click! No! You've instead been led to an infected site, and you're now downloading the virus,
like it or not.

No. 02 - Sasser Virus

The Sasser worm was a destructive beast when it hit in 2004, counting big targets such as the
British Coast Guard (which lost its mapping capabilities), Agence France-Presse (which lost its
satellite communications) and Delta Airlines (which had to cancel flights when their computer system
went down).
Universities, hospitals and large corporations all reported infections that caused computers to
repeatedly crash. How about a 17-year-old German kid?
Thanks to his young age, Sven Jaschan served no jail time. He was, however, sentenced to 21
months probation and some community service. Ah, youth.

No. 03 - Nimda Virus

Nimda (that's "admin" spelled backward) hit the virus scene in 2001 and quickly (very quickly) rose
to the top.
In just 22 minutes, Nimda went from a nothing to being the most widespread computer virus on
Earth. How?
It spread via email, via Web sites, via server vulnerabilities. It pretty much had all the bases covered.
It even used some old backdoors opened up by past viruses to get into servers and muck up Internet
traffic.
As for the fear factor, Nimda had great timing, hitting just a week or so after the Sept. 11 attacks and
prompting fear that it was the first in a new wave of Al Qaeda cyberterror attacks.
Those fears turned out to be unfounded and, while a few networks may have crashed, our Internet
infrastructure is still standing today.

No. 04 - Melissa Virus

Melissa was a new virus for a new age: the email age. Forget floppies, this one was among the first to spread via the
dreaded email attachment.
It also pioneered the art of breaking into your address book and sending itself to all your contacts. The virus would
arrive via an innocent-looking email that told you to open a document and why would you open a document from a
stranger? You wouldn't.
Remember the whole address book thing? So, when you got an email from, say, your boss, telling you "Here is that
document you asked for," there's a pretty good chance you might open it. Whoops.
Hacker David Smith claimed he wrote the virus for a stripper named Melissa who he had met in Florida. Right,
because everyone knows girls are suckers for a destructive bit of code.

No. 05 - Code Red I and II Computer Viruses

The Code Red viruses were very, very sneaky worms.

They didn't require you to do anything to become infected (you didn't need to open an attachment or download a file);
all it took was an active Internet connection for the virus to take advantage of a flaw in the Windows operating
system. And what did the viruses do?
Well, for one, they turned your computer into a slave, letting someone offsite operate it remotely. That means they
could steal what was on your computer or even use your computer to do some bad thingslike, say, overloading the
White House computers by telling all the infected computers to contact its address.
Luckily, the government was able to shift to another address to escape the attack, but other servers weren't so lucky.
In the end, over 200,000 servers were hit by the Code Red virus in 2001.

No. 06 - Morris Computer Virus

The Morris worm started as an experiment, insists Robert Tappan Morris, who in 1988 was a Cornell graduate
student.
He distributed the worm in an attempt to gauge how big the then-infant Internet was, but things kind of got out of
control from there. The worm spread to some 6,000 university and government computers, slowing them down (and
occasionally causing them to crash) as it copied itself (often numerous times on one machine) and spread.
Morris was convicted and fined, but served no time for his little research project. Today, he's a professor at MIT. Let's
hope his students have learned from their professor's mistakes

No. 07 - ILOVEYOU Virus

The ILOVEYOU virus went for the heart, hoping you'd take a chance and open an attachment labeled as a love letter.
Really? People fell for this? Yes.
As many as 10 percent of all Internet-connected computers were infected at the virus's peak in 2000.
The virus spread through the email attachments, but it also replicated itself on a computer's hard drive, directing the
computer to download a password-stealing application from the Internet.
Worldwide damage estimates were in the billions of dollars. All for love, right? Yeah, not so much

No. 08 - Brain Computer Virusr

Brain may not have been the most sophisticated virus, but in 1986 it was the first to really target PCs, via Microsoft's
then-dominant DOS operating system.
The virus ate up a huge chunk of memory and caused computers to display a message warning that they had been
infected.
It even told them whom they should call to get disinfected: a couple of brothers in Pakistan. Those brothers, the
original developers, claim they weren't trying to cause so much trouble; they created the virus as a means of copy
protection for their medical software...but then someone else came along and copied that bit of code and the brothers
got more than they had bargained for, with pleas for disinfection coming from around the world.

No. 09 - Conficker
What made Conficker so huge, when it hit in late 2008, was the mystery surrounding it. Ooooh, Conficker.
It had a scary-sounding name and, even scarier, it wasn't really doing anythingyet.
Conficker was assembling an army of computers, called a botnet, but no one was sure where the battle would be.
The virus was telling the infected computers, now potentially zombies, to contact specific sites on certain days...was it
to obtain further instructions? Their orders? Who knows?
Most companies and governments installed security patches to protect their computer systems, but some infected
machines remain out there, still part of the army.
In theory, they're still ready to serve if Conficker calls.