The Cyberworld's Protection and Standards

 Virus

A worm program carries out the  bidding of its designer autonomously by creating duplicates of itself among many computers while a virus program does the same job somewhat more surreptitiously by hiding copies of itself inside other programs already stores in the computer; the virus executes when its host program is invoked. Some viruses may destroy a computer’s hard disk or take up memory spaces that could otherwise be used by programs. The catch term “virus“ was applied by Fred Cohen in 1983.

Another definition of a virus; an unauthorized and unwanted instructions in a computer that disrupt its normal operation, often acquired from downloaded software or that acquired from unconventional sources such as for pirated software. On 1981, the first computer; Elk Cloner, is spread via Apple II floppy disks, which contained the operating system.

Examples of viruses:
Macintosh Virus

This virus was on a disk shipped with “Freehand”, a graphics program shipped by the Aldus Corporation of Seattle.
The Lehigh Virus

          It is discovered late in 1987 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. This was a malicious virus that not only damaged several hundred university disks and crashed the hard-disk microcomputers in the university’s laboratory, but also infected innumerable disks owned by students and faculty members.
The Pakistani Virus

              First reported at the University of Deleware, and embedded itself in the disk's boot sector, the disk parameter table (DPT).
The Amiga Virus

              Appearing almost simultaneously in both England and Australia, this computer virus reportedly came on a disk provided by the Amiga distributors, the Amiga microcomputer is produced by the Commodore Corporation.

Steps to Virus Protection

1. Install the latest Windows update.

2. Purchase a good antivirus program.

3. After installing an antivirus program, scan your entire computer to be sure your system is clean.

4. Update your antivirus definitions regularly.

5. Be suspicious of any and all unsolicited e-mail attachments.

6. Stay informed about viruses and virus hoaxes.

7. Install a personal firewall program.

8. Download software only if you are sure the Web site is legitimate.

9. Avoid as best you can visiting unscrupulous Web sites.

Worm

       It is program that propagates itself across computers, usually by creating copies of itself in each computer's memory. A worm might duplicate itself in one computer so often that it causes the computer to crash, sometimes written in separate segments, a worm is introduced surreptitiously into a host system either as a prank or with the intent of damaging or destroying information. The term has generally been superseded by the term virus.

History

On Nov. 2, 1998, Cornell computer science graduate student Robert Morris released a worm program into the ARPANET. Over an eight-hour period it invaded between 2500 and 300 VAX and Sun computers running the Berkeley UNIX operating system. The worm program disabled virtually all of the computers by replicating rampantly and clogging them with many copies.

Trojan horse

       This is a generic name for a penetration method that includes hidden code, something is in a program that is not supposed to be there, on the program does not do what it's supposed to do. It is possible to put a Trojan horse into a system that would, for example, simulate the log-on messages. Familiar kinds of Trojan horses in microcomputers are the freeware or Shareware program that spreads a virus, and many computer games, unlike viruses; Trojan horses do not replicate themselves.

     

Payload

A destructive event or prank the program is intended to deliver. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload on a computer in four basic ways: when a user (1) opens an infected file, (2) runs an infected program, (3) boots the computer with infected removable media inserted in a drive or plugged in a port, or (4) connects an unprotected computer to a network.

Honeypots

It is a vulnerable computer that is set up to entice an intruder to break into it. These computers, which appear real to the intruder, actually are separated safely from the company or organization's network. Honeypots allow the company or organization to learn how intruders are exploiting their network and also attempt to catch perpetrators who have been doing damage elsewhere on their network. Large web hosting companies, such as Yahoo! and AT & T, and law enforcement agencies frequently use honeypots.

Botnets

       (roBOT NETwork) Also called a "zombie army," a botnet is a large number of compromised computers that are used to generate spam, relay viruses or flood a network or Web server with excessive requests to cause it to fail. The computer is compromised via a Trojan that often works by opening an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel that waits for commands from the person in control of the botnet.

Spoofing

       It is a practice of making a transmission appear to come from an authorized user.  For example, in IP spoofing, a transmission contains the IP address of an authorized user in order to obtain access to a computer network, perpetrators of IP spoofing trick their victims into interacting with the phony Web site. For example, the victim may provide confidential information or download files containing viruses, worms, or other malware.

Denial of Service Attacks

       It is also called as DoS attack; it is an assault, usually planned, that seeks to disrupt Web access. A denial of service attack overwhelms an Internet server with connection requests that cannot be completed. In so doing, it causes the server to become so busy attempting to respond to the attack that it ignores legitimate requests for connections. Perpetrators carry out DoS attack in a variety of ways. For example, they may use an unsuspecting computer to send an influx of confusing data, messages or useless traffic to a computer network.

Back doors

       It is a gaining access to a program or system by bypassing its security controls. Programmers often build back doors into systems under development so that they can fix bugs. If the back door becomes known to anyone other than the programmer, or if it is not removed before the software is released, it becomes a security risk.

Firewalls

       A security system intended to protect an organization’s network against external threats, such as hackers, coming from another network such as the Internet. A firewall prevents computers in the organization’s network from communicating directly with the computers external to the network and vice versa. Some operating systems, such as Windows XP, include personal firewalls. For enhanced firewall protection, many users purchase stand alone personal firewall software.

Bibliography:

Webster’s Computer Dictionary

The Computer Virus Crisis (Fites, et. al)

Dictionary of Computer Science

Computers Under Attack (Denning)

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=botnet&i=38866,00.asp