Computer viruses homework help

What is a computer virus

A computer virus is a malicious software program designed to infect computers and disrupt normal operations. A computer virus can spread from one computer to another via physical media such as floppy disks, CD-ROMs, flash drives, DVDs, or USB drives; over local area networks (LANs) or wide area networks (WANs); through email attachments; instant message programs; peer-to-peer file sharing network; or through social media sites. Visit assignmentsguru to get top notch Computer viruses assignments. We have a pool of experienced writers with amazing portfolio on their work. Our writers ensure you get you Computer viruses assignments on time before deadline.

A virus is a piece of software that gets installed onto a computer without the user’s knowledge or approval. Once infected, the computer may perform actions that are unintended or unauthorized by the user. Viruses can be designed to do many different things, and not all types of viruses are harmful to your computer. Some may simply display messages or collect information about you and your system. However, other viruses can be destructive and cause permanent damage to your files and data.

How do you prevent computer viruses?

The following measures can help you prevent a virus infection:

• Install and keep up to date with the latest antivirus and antispyware software to ensure your computer is protected against harmful cyber threats.
• Run daily antivirus scans
• Disabling auto run can prevent viruses from propagating to any media connected to the system by removing the risk of your computer getting infected over time.
• Regularly patch the OS and applications installed on the computer.
• Don’t click on web links sent via email from unknown senders.
• Don’t download files from the internet or email from unknown senders.
• Install a hardware-based firewall to protect your network from unwanted intrusions.

What are signs you may be infected with a computer virus?

The following are indications that your computer might be infected by a virus:

• The computer takes a long time to start up and performance is slow.
• The computer experiences frequent crashes or shutdown and error messages.
• The computer behaves erratically, such as not responding to clicks or opening files on its own.
• The computer’s HD is acting strangely — for example, constantly spinning or making continual noise.
• Email is corrupted.
• The amount of storage on the computer is reduced.
• Files and other data on the computer have gone missing.

How do you remove a computer virus?

In the event your personal computer (PC) becomes infected with a virus, you can take the following steps to remove it:

1. Enter Safe Mode. The process will depend on the version of Windows you’re running.
2. Delete temporary files. While in Safe Mode, use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete temporary files.
3. Download an on-demand and a real-time virus scanner.
4. Run the on-demand scanner followed by the real-time scanner. If neither scanner removes the virus, then it might need to be removed manually. This should only be done by an expert who is experienced at using Windows Registry and knows how to view and delete system and program files.
5. Reinstall any files or programs damaged by the virus.

History of computer viruses

The first known computer virus was developed in 1971 by Robert Thomas, an engineer at BBN Technologies. Known as the Creeper virus, Thomas’ experimental program infected mainframes on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), displaying the teletype message: “I’m the creeper: Catch me if you can.”

The first computer virus to be discovered in the wild was Elk Cloner, which infected Apple II OSes through floppy disks and displayed a humorous message on infected computers. Elk Cloner, which was developed by 15-year-old Richard Skrenta in 1982, was designed as a prank, but it demonstrated how a potentially malicious program could be installed in an Apple computer’s memory and prevent users from removing the program.

The term “computer virus” wasn’t coined until a year later. Fred Cohen, a graduate student at USC, wrote an academic paper titled “Computer Viruses – Theory and Experiments” and credited his academic advisor and RSA Security co-founder Leonard Adleman with coining the term computer virus in 1983.

Famous computer viruses

Notable examples of early computer viruses include the following:

• The Brain virus, which initially appeared in 1986, is considered to be the first Microsoft DOS (MS-DOS) PC virus. Brain was a boot sector virus. It spread through infected floppy disk boot sectors, and once installed on a new PC, it would install itself to the system’s memory and subsequently infect any new disks inserted into that PC.
• The Jerusalem virus, also known as the Friday the 13th virus, was discovered in 1987 and spread throughout Israel via floppy disks and email attachments. The DOS virus would infect a system and delete all files and programs when the system’s calendar reached Friday the 13th.
• The Melissa virus, which first appeared in 1999, was distributed as an email attachment. If the infected systems had Microsoft Outlook, the virus would be sent to the first 50 people in an infected user’s contact list. This virus also affected macros in Microsoft Word and disabled or lowered security protections in the program.
• The Archiveus Trojan, Archivus is the first known example of a ransomware virus that uses strong encryption to lock users’ data. Archivus targeted Windows systems & used RSA encryption.– whereas earlier versions of ransomware used weaker and easily defeated encryption technology — and demanded victims purchase products from an online pharmacy.
• The Zeus Trojan, or Zbot, one of the most well-known and widely spread viruses in history, first appeared in 2006 but has evolved over the years and continues to cause problems as new variants emerge. The Zeus Trojan was initially used to infect Windows systems and harvest banking credentials and account information from victims. The virus spreads through phishing attacks, drive-by downloads, and man-in-the-browser. The Zeus malware kit was adapted by cybercriminals to include new functionality to evade antivirus programs, as well as spawn new variants of the Trojan, such as ZeusVM,which uses steganography techniques to hide its data. who sent it to a number of security software companies, including Symantec in the U.S. and Kaspersky Lab in Russia. Cabir is considered a proof-of-concept (POC) virus because it proves that a virus can be written for mobile phones, something that was once doubted.

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