COMPUTER VIRUSES

1)Sumit Mishra 2)Kannapalli Rajesh 3)Vishal Katyare 4)Jagannath Panda

INTRODUCTION
people are phenomenon nowadays. very badly informed concerning this which becomes increasingly current

An incorrect use of unspecified media.

DEFINITION OF VIRUS:
Virus (computer), a self-duplicating computer program that spreads from computer to computer, interfering with data and software.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Virus researcher Fred Cohen coins the term "computer virus" in a research paper. 1977: First network virus called creeper was created . 1986: Brain, the first computer virus, is released. 1987:Jerusalem and Lehigh virus were first memory resident virus. 1988: First encrypted virus called cascade was found in Germany. 1999: The Melissa virus, a macro, appears.

HISTORY (CONTINUED)
2000: The "I Love You Virus" wreaks havoc around the world. 2003 and 2004: Bad year for computer industry . #Blaster Worm,SoBig and Mydoom virus . Infect more than 10 million machines world wide.

POLYMORPHIC VIRUSES
They have combined characteristics of various viruses. A virus that changes its virus signature (i.e., its binary pattern) every time it replicates and infects a new file in order to keep from being detected by an antivirus program. Eg:Chameleon,Tequila etc

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUSES

They modify the first section of information read during starting. Then the virus contaminates all the diskettes or the removable supports inserted into the computer. They modify also the order of the operations of the operating system.

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUSES (CONTINUATION)

Affect the memory (the computer becomes very slow).
Destroy files.

Modify the information of the files of the operating system.

The software of the Office continuation infects.

INFORMER (SPYWARE)
The goal of the informers is to collect the most possible information of the user. Consequences to be infected of an informer: They note the Web sites which you visited; They recover the key words subjected to the search engines; They recover the information subjected in Web forms; They recover the information subjected in Web forms; These informers are present in many freewares or sharewares and they settle at the time of the remote loadings without the knowledge of the users.

INFORMER (SPYWARE) (CONTINUATION)

Some of these editors sign contracts with large companies of marketing. According to several sites specialized in the defense of the private life, more than 1.200 free software of rights would be infected by a form or another of informer.

PRECAUTIONS
There is never really a way of being truly protected from viruses, especially when you are connected to any form of network. There are chances that a virus will get to your computer even before your antivirus software is aware of its existence. Still there are ways of being more safe from virus.

PRECAUTIONS (CONTINUATION)
Having Bootable CD of original operating system. Making bootable CD from antivirus software. Use well reputed anti-virus software and update it regularly. Make sure that your antivirus automatically scans any newly inserted disks for viruses, especially when you are tend to exchange data within the network.

PRECAUTIONS (CONTINUATION)
Avoid opening mails with attachments unless you are absolutely sure that they are from trusted source. Keep out your documents and important programs on a CD or any other storage media. Keep windows firewall setting on so that it will block all outside sources from connecting to your computer.

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUSES

Computer stops responding to certain software. E-mail containing strange attachment. Opening of attachment causes degradation in system performance. Double extension on an recently opened attachment. Antivirus program is disabled for no reason. Suddenly strange dialog boxes appears on the screen.

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUSES (CONTINUATION)

New icon will appear on the screen. The PC runs very slowly and it takes long time to start. Out of memory error message appears in spite of having plenty of RAM. Window will not start because certain critical files are missing. The infected file utilizes the whole space of hard disk by making copies itself.

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUSES (CONTINUATION)

Some files or folders will be missing.
Strange sound or music plays from the speaker. An e-mail is sent to your friend containing infected attachment and you have not sent it. At the last your antivirus software tells you that virus is detected in your computer.

REMOVAL OF VIRUS
Unplug the network cable from infected computer. Switch of the computer by proper shut down process. Advise other users in the network to scan their computer. Dont share CDs, DVDs USB drives that were burnt from infected computer. Only restart the PC when you are ready to get rid of virus.

FREE SOFTWARE
Spybot Search & destroy Ad-Aware Bazooka A2 Trend-Micro PC-cillin Symantec SecurityCheck McAfee Virus Scan Online

CONCLUSION
To conclude, the viruses are indeed present and increase in a considerable way year by year.
The best remedy remains the prevention. It is important to maintain your system up to date. In this way, you will avoid the undesirable infections of the viruses or the parasites.

Bibliography

AVG Free http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/fr/index.html
How Stuff works

www.howstuffworks.com/

Bibliography (continuation)
Trend-Micro PC-cillin http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp Symantec SecurityCheck http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid =sym

McAfee freeScan http://www.pcpitstop.com/freescan/FreeScan_EULA_Page.asp