The Love Bug Virus - Case Study Example

THE LOVE BUG VIRUS The Love Bug Virus Affiliation Explain the difficulty of creating a computer virus and discuss the frequency with which this happens.Creating a computer virus requires extensive programming skills. In fact, it is believed that virus programmers are high quality programmers. However, they use their programming skills for carrying out negative tasks. One difficulty of creating computer viruses is that it is not a lawful or ethical activity. In this scenario, programmers waste their extremely useful skills.

They can use these skills to do some positive task. At the present, a large number of computer viruses have emerged. There are different kinds of a virus and each of them has a serious impact on computer systems (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005; Cohen, 1990) Explain the difference between a virus and a worm, and describe how the respective threat levels compare.A number of security threats such as viruses and worm programs cost business organizations, individuals and government agencies millions of dollars every year.

Both the computer viruses and worms belong to a category of software called malware. In this scenario, a Malware or malicious code (malcode) refers to malicious software. In addition, it is a piece of code or software that is purposely developed or written to harm, break, interrupt, steal, or on the whole mete out some other “terrible” or unlawful act on data, information, hosts, or networks. Additionally, a computer virus is a kind of malware that can vary in harshness and damaging a system from causing slightly disturbing effects to destructing software programs or data and resulting denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

Normally, the majority of computer viruses are incorporated in an executable file, which shows that the virus can stay on a computer or machine however it may not be lively or able to extend until a user executes or runs the malicious host program or file. In this scenario, once the system user executes this host code, the infected file or code is also executed along with the program. In fact, the host program works properly even after it is harmed by the virus. On the other hand, a few types of viruses replicate other programs with copies of themselves, which eliminate the infected program and files all in all.

Moreover, a virus can enter into a system and extend to other systems when software are connected to is distributed from one machine to another by making use of a USB drive, the network, file sharing, a disk, or infected e-mail attachments (IT Training & Education, 2009; Cisco, 2013; Neubauer & Harris, 2002; Singh & Lakhotia, 2002; Denning, 1990).On the other hand, computer worms are like viruses for the reason that they duplicate practical copies of themselves and can result in the same type of harm.

However, as compared to viruses, which have need of the distribution of a dirty host file or data, worms are impartial software as well as do not have need of human help or a host program to spread. In this scenario, to extend their effects, worms either make use of vulnerability on the destination machine or system or make use of some kind of social engineering to ploy system users into running them. In addition, a worm can go into a machine or system through vulnerability in the system as well as takes benefit of information-transport or file-transport characteristics available on the system, facilitating it to travel without help (IT Training & Education, 2009; Cisco, 2013; Neubauer & Harris, 2002; Singh & Lakhotia, 2002; Denning, 1990).

Address the questions: Are non-Microsoft operating systems less prone to virus attack? Why or why not?It is believed that non-Microsoft operating systems such as Linux and Mac are the least vulnerable to virus attack. Most of computers that run non-Microsoft operating systems such as Linux or other servers are run and maintained, and managed by expert IT personnel who are fully aware of what they are doing. On the other hand, the majority of computer illiterate use Microsoft operating systems and therefore it is very easy to get their computers infected.

It is harder to develop a virus for non-Microsoft operating system for the reason that operating systems such as Linux and UNIX distribution/installation is identical by itself, so it is difficult to create a virus that would enter into these operating systems as proficient as possible. In addition, approximately all software programs and applications that are executed on Linux are Open Source, son writing a virus program or malware can be without problems identified in view of the fact that its code is open to the public (SuperUser, 2011; ComboFix, 2013; Singh & Lakhotia, 2002).

ReferencesCisco. (2013). What Is the Difference: Viruses, Worms, Trojans, and Bots? Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/security/intelligence/virus-worm-diffs.htmlCohen, F. B. (1990). A Short Course on Computer Viruses. Pittsburg, USA: ASP Press.ComboFix. (2013). Which Operating System Is Safe From Virus Attack? Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.combofix.org/which-operating-system-is-safe-from-virus-attack.phpDenning, P. J. (1990). Computers under attack: intruders, worms, and viruses.

New York: ACM.IT Training & Education. (2009, September). Viruses, Worms, and Spyware. Retrieved January 15, 2013, from http://ittraining.iu.edu/workshops/win_security/virus.htmlNeubauer, B. J., & Harris, J. D. (2002). Protection of computer systems from computer viruses: ethical and practical issues. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Volume 18 Issue 1, pp. 270-279.Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat. (2005). Discovering Computers 2005. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.Singh, P. K., & Lakhotia, A. (2002). Analysis and detection of computer viruses and worms: an annotated bibliography.

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 37 Issue 2, pp. 29-35.SuperUser. (2011). How is Linux not prone to viruses, malware and those kinds of things? Retrieved January 15, 2013, from http://superuser.com/questions/195387/how-is-linux-not-prone-to-viruses-malware-and-those-kinds-of-things