Introduction
I am a staff member of the college of social sciences computer center, so yes I do have experience with computer viruses. I am a lab monitor, so I scan peoples' disks for viruses and come across all kinds of viruses. People sometimes do not scan their disks for viruses for a semester or so. For instance, I had to clean out someone's disk one night and it took me about half a hour to clean it because this person had about twenty five different infected files.
Some of the viruses' names I recognized were from the previous semester, like npad and cpad. Mr. Akira Sasabe's problem can be described in a twofold way: Viruses are programs that people write and then are inserted into your computer or network. People insert viruses into a network system or an individual terminal knowingly or unknowingly because some idiots have no lives and decide it is fun to make other peoples lives miserable by destroying their work with some kind of computer virus. Another way you can look at a computer virus is as told.
**Discuss your interpretation of this news item in Edupage Online, December 1997: DOE ISSUES WARNING ON CRACKER TOOLS The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a bulletin warning that two new computer attack tools, known asTeardrop and Land, are being used maliciously by crackers intent on breaking into computer systems and networks. The software sniffs out vulnerable servers and launches attacks based on the "denial-of-service" strategy that overwhelms servers with bogus messages, blocking out legitimate traffic. "They hit the button and go down to the cinema with their girlfriends," says a senior systems consultant with the Defense Information Systems Agency. "They come back and see that they have looked at 200,000 systems." (TechWeb 24 Dec 97)
My reactions are as follows: computers are going to attract viruses no matter what. I think that computer hackers are sick because they have no lives. I think that people who use this method are sick because people who really need to use these networks are affected really badly. Why do people insert viruses to destroy networks? What are the individual and societal implications of this? People need to work on their papers and do not need to be bothered with people who insert viruses on purpose.
People should not have to suffer if they know how to deal with viruses and can prevent it. I scan my disk for viruses using Mcafee before and after each session. I also find terminals that are not infected with viruses. I know which terminals do contain viruses in the Porteus lab, so I try to stay away from them. There also might be a new way of inserting viruses into the computer and that is through the internet. I have received e-mail messages from friends in the past warning me that if this particular file is sent to you through an e-mail message, then do not open it up, because it contains a computer virus. You would think people have better things to do with their time than insert computer viruses into of all places, e-mail messages and send them as attachments!
There are things you can do to prevent and repair your viruses. You can get an antivirus program to scan for them. Mcafee is weak. The best one I have come across is Diskdoctor, a program that repairs your files when in some cases Mcafee does not clean out that important file you might need the next day to do your term paper. Incidentally, another reason you could be attracting a lot of viruses is that you are doing your work on a lot of terminals in various computer labs. There are many users other than yourself so you have to be cautious to use as few terminals as possible and try to get your favorite terminal. Or save up enough money and get a computer of your own. Also, a network connects all of the terminals to a main server, and therefore a lot of viruses could be being transferred over from terminal to terminal. So while the majority of the people may not be inserting computer viruses intentionally there are a few people who ruin peoples lives and reports.
Computer viruses in my opinion are nothing more than a cold. People catch colds for no apparent reason, and so do computers. Sometimes someone thinks that he or she has a cold but in reality all that person has is something that was faked. Computer viruses can be faked too.
There are also computer viruses such as cpad and npad. There are some called Johnny and Wazzu. Viruses do not seem to be a problem yet. The problems with computer viruses usually occur during the ending of the semester.
**How do they work? How do they spread? What types are there? There are many types of computer viruses. Some of them are old variations to new viruses. I believe that computer viruses work when someone creates a rumor and then tells people in an e-mail message to watch out for this virus. Do not open this computer virus on your computer hard drive, or you will crash your work.
**What are some famous viruses in the history of computer viruses?
Some of the most famous viruses in history in my opinion are computer virus hoaxes.
These virus scares waste people times.
Famous Virus (Hoaxes)
**What are virus myths? Describe some that you find astonishing. Why do people propagate viruses? There are some people who create viruses after the fact. This means that software with the virus on them is released even after there is a hoax alert, and they use a different name. (For instance: Good Times alert: GT spoof).
Computer viruses are misleading too. A good example to find out what constitutes a computer virus and what does not is Faith Matsuda's report Virus Myths. Some virus myths she outlines are: bulletin board viruses which are common place and can infect a computer system and viruses can easily be spread throughout the computer system despite it being write protected. You need to write protect a disk as soon as it is bought if you want to prevent viruses from being spread.
Faith Matsuda also describes some common viruses in her report, the most common virus being the word macro virus. She also lists other viruses with a brief description: Boot sector virus, the companion virus, the file virus, the multipartite virus, the polymorphic virus, and the stealth virus. These viruses attach themselves to a file or change. The stealth virus attempts to deceive the person because it tries to hide from the person.
**Discuss the significance of the existence of computer viruses. How are they like biological viruses in function? Could there be an evolution in cyberspace of virtual "entities" like there is in natural space for biological organisms? The current breaking news says that they're coming out with intelligent agents software that seek out and attack computer viruses wherever they can hide on the Internet or on your hard drive. This sounds like a cyberspace immune system with T-cells, etc. Do you see merit in these analogies? Could they be real rather than just metaphor?
In order to answer this question, I went to Aaron Libed's report to answer the question. My interpretation of his reaction is that a virus may start out small but then it can become a huge problem. Also let us say that there is a virus hiding. Is it possible to detect it before it becomes a big problem? Only time will tell. As there are virus detecting agents such as Mcafee Mcafee
**How do people react to viruses? Describe a major computer scare (be sure to give your live absolute reference link so people can jump there for a first hand look). How does this impress you and what does it show you?
I think that people react to computer viruses negatively. Just as you would react to a common cold or any other sickness in real life, same goes for the computer. People panic when they get a computer virus. Not to worry, if you have the proper knowledge of operating Mcafee then the computer virus should go away.
**Take a look at how other students in your class have done this report (when the drafts are posted). Describe your impressions and reactions to the reports you look at--link to them. How do they compare with yours in (a) content, (b) approach, and (c) presentation.
My report has experience, and is fairly comparable to other members of my generation. I think my experience around computer viruses speak for itself because I can identify a virus and I know what causes it. What can cause a computer virus in my opinion are a network system, and jumping from terminal to terminal in an on campus computer lab. This is what my experience has taught me about computer viruses working in the computer lab. I have also seen viruses come and go. My report on computer viruses comes from a Hands on Approach. Greg Suguitan also has a hands on approach as does Faith Matsuda.
Conclusion: Computer viruses are nothing more than colds. They come and go. Do not panic if you get a computer virus, get the proper antivirus programs, such as McAfee and diskdoctor.