Can We Stop Computer Viruses?

Can we stop computer viruses?

By

Research Design

Instructor: Mazen Badra

12 May 2004

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Problem Statement

Research objectives

Importance/Benefits

Literary review

Bibliography

Can we stop computer viruses?

INTRODUCTION:

"If I can get $250,000 from Microsoft for turning in a fellow hacker, I will do it. It don't think there is much honor among thieves," says Patrick Gray a director at Internet Security Systems and formerly a cyber crime fighter at the FBI.2 The $250,000 reward is the latest tool in the fight to combat the overwhelming attacks by computer virus writers. The latest arrest that was motivated by monetary tool that of a 19-year-old German boy in connection to the Sasser virus. This virus has infected more than two million computers world wide according to info world Web Magizine.3 According to Microsoft the creators of computer viruses are winning the battle with cyber cops.

With more than four decades of technological advances electronic communication is prevalent in every aspect business, especially the Internet. The Internet has presented many benefits to the corporate community; it also has attracted its share of undesirable elements that misuse it. It is estimated that Computer viruses will cost the global economy more than $13 billion dollars this year.1

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

As the tools needed to hack or create viruses become easier to use the number of virus and hacking exploits grows exponentially. This growth is so fast that the anti virus companies cannot keep up. The only approach to combating the virus or hackers is reactive. The programmers make a bad code then the anti virus programmer makes a code to stop it.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of this research is to:

To explain what an anti virus programmer does.

To explain what a malicious program does.

To explain what an anti virus program does.

To show examples of monetary losses that are the result of not being prepared for the malicious codes.

To explain why the malicious programmers are winning the war.

To show what the anti virus programmers are doing to prevent malicious codes

(How, What, When and Where)

Show that the only way to fight viruses is to be reactive.

IMPORTANCE/BENEFITS:

By understanding the obstacles facing cyber cops we can identify areas of the cyber law and reactive fighting that need to be refined to allow for perpetrators of cyber crime to be caught. We need to identify who writes virus, what damage virus causes, when they unleash their payload and where the program causes damage. about computer viruses one may try to find ways to combat the malicious code.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

The introduction of the personal computer in the '80s, and the expansion of the Internet and World Wide Web in the '90s have created a society that is highly dependent on computer networks. Because of this dependence on computer technology in every day life, computer viruses have had, and will likely continue to have, the potential to wreak havoc.

A computer virus is a program designed to spread itself by first infecting a host file on a user's computer. The virus software adds instructions to the host program that instruct it do something the original program was not intended to do, and make copies of itself that seek out other files to infect. The malicious instruction code the

Virus inserts into a program can do something as simple as printing text on the user's screen at a specific time of day to something more malicious like deleting files or e-mailing all the addresses in an infected computer's e-mail address book. Viruses often operate without the knowledge or desire of the computer user.

Computer worms are a variant of viruses that do not require a host program. Computer anti-virus software scans files and looks for known patterns of virus code and alerts the user to either delete the infected files or altered them to remove the code. This basic knowledge is not enough too combat the overwhelming attacks by virus writers. This may be due to the limited ability to find and prosecute the people who write this malicious code.

"There out to be a law"4 At least is what you would think when it cost more than "13 Billion dollars worldwide to repair or fix the damage caused by computer viruses in 2003."5

If you write or distribute malicious code that causes damage to a computer system or computer network you can be charged with breaking the law. The difficult part for a cyber cop is identifying who wrote the malicious code and distributed the code and then proving the malicious intent. In addition "there is so much hacking going on and malicious code being distributed that no law enforcement group could begin to investigate