Viruses a Costly Danger to PC Security

July 2008
by Robin Wark

Many viruses are written for a sense of personal accomplishment by people that have no remorse about the damage that they might cause. It’s kind of a way for these program writers to brag and see how successful their creation can become - the wider spread damage, the better.

The bad guys’ viruses are attached to a commonly used program, so when that program runs, the piggybacking virus will run as well, infecting the executable file. Executables are files whose contents are meant to be interpreted as a program by a computer, such as system files and application programs.

Once the virus becomes active it infiltrates your computers memory and may copy itself to your hard drive or applications and system files on disks.

Many of the more benign viruses do little else than display some sort of message or make an audible sound at a certain time, replicating themselves to be picked up by other users.

However, a lot of the more malicious viruses are programmed to intentionally destroy data on your computer by corrupting programs, deleting files and even crashing your entire hard drive. Some viruses will just make your system perform inconsistently or crash at inopportune times.

Once a virus has attached itself to a program it has the ability to spread whenever the program is run. Once it is in memory, the virus may attach itself to other applications, disks and folders. Some viruses can infect an entire network and have devastating results.

Not all viruses are the same. Some will lay dormant until an application is running. When the computer is turned off, the virus will not be active. Whereas some will cause havoc every time you turn on your computer, infecting files and networks.

There are many varieties of viruses that cause different kinds of damage.

File Infector Viruses: This is considered the traditional form virus and works by hiding itself in the code of another program. The infected program typically has an EXE, COM, SYS, BAT, or PIF extension. When the program is launched, the virus copies itself to your computer’s memory and can be running even when your computer is turned off.

Macro Viruses: Macro viruses are small programs written to do specific tasks. The scary thing about macro viruses is that they can be attached to document files. Whereas file infectors have to be embedded in an executable file, macro viruses can place themselves in any Word or Excel document, etc.

Script viruses: Script viruses are made up of general scripting languages that are classically used on Web sites and in some computer applications. These viruses are written into JavaScript, ActiveX, and Java applets, which frequently run routinely when you visit a Web page or open a Word or Excel application. With the increasing use of the Web, these script viruses are becoming commonplace, and are becoming a major threat online.

Viruses are a monumental threat that cost consumers and businesses a staggering amount of dollars each year. www.washingtonpost.com reported that the FBI rates cyber crime as its No. 3 priority, behind only counter-terrorism and counter-espionage activities.

They went on to say that former Bush administration official, Valerie McNevin, stated that the cost of cyber crime was an astronomical $105 billion a year problem.

It is crucial to have top anti-virus software installed on your computer to avoid the devastating consequences and inconvenience that a virus can cause.