Kimberly Bolanos
Ayesha Fatima
Asfiya Khatoon

A B rief H istory of
C omputer V iruses,
B ugs, & W orms
Kimberly L. Bolanos

NEWS FLASH . . .BUG CRASHES COMPUTER!!!!
The First "Computer Bug“
In 1947 Rear Admiral Grace
Murray Hopper discovers a moth trapped between relays in a Navy computer.
She calls it a "bug," a term used since the late 19th century to refer to problems with electrical devices.

Viruses

Need a host file.

Make their presence known by presenting text, video, and audio messages.

Typically take up computer memory used by legitimate programs, causing erratic behavior leading to system crashes.
Worms
Program that replicate itself from system to system without the use of a host file.
They generally exist inside of other files, often Word or Excel documents.
Worm releases a document that already has the "worm" macro inside the document.

1975
Pervade
1982
Elk Cloner
1983
Viruses
1 st Commercial Computer Virus
UNIVACs
1st Apple Virus
Apple II
Fred Cohen
Defined Computer Virus
1986
Brain
1995
Concept
1999
2000
LoveLetter
2001
Anna
Kournikova
2001
Nimda
2003
Microsoft
Melissa
1s t PC Widespread Boot Sector Virus
1st macro virus that spread through Microsoft Word WORMS
Fastest spreading virus
Steals your information and sends it off to the
Philippines.
First “Do – It – Yourself” virus toolkit.
Multi-dimensional attack
The newest bounty hunters.
The first, the fastest, the most ferocious.

It all started as a popular game!
“Animal”
1975 by John Walker
Animal was a computer program that would try to guess the animal you were thinking of by asking series of twenty questions. While you were answering the questions the virus
Pervade was quietly running in the background.
Think of an animal…..
BACK

Early Cloning
Created in 1982 by Rich Skrenta, Elk
Cloner was the first computer virus to affect personal computers, namely the
Apple II.
This was the first "boot sector" virus.
BACK

Who: Fred Cohen
What: Coins the term
"computer virus"
When: 1983
Where: University of
Southern California
Back

1986 One of the first PC viruses ever created, "The Brain," is released by programmers in Pakistan.
Back

In August 1995,
Concept
The worm circled the globe in only a month and until September 1998 was listed as one of the most prevalent viruses reported.
BACK

1999 The infamous "Melissa" virus, infects thousands of computers with alarming speed, causing an estimated
$80 million in damage and prompting record sales of anti-virus products.
NEXT

2001
Melissa author, David L.
Smith, 33, is sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.
BACK

The "I Love You" virus infects millions of computers virtually overnight, using a method similar to the
Melissa virus. But this virus also sends the usernames and passwords stored on infected computers back to the virus's author.
NEXT
BACK

Feeling the
“Love”
Onel de Guzman and his sister,
Irene de Guzman.
BACK

The "Anna Kournikova" virus, promised digital pictures of the young tennis star.
What you got was the chance to send the virus to EVERYONE in your
Outlook address book!
BACK

On September 18, 2001, the
"Nimda" virus infects hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.
At the time, with up to four methods of infecting systems and replicating itself, Nimda appeared to be the most sophisticated, yet troublesome, virus of its type.
admin = nimda
BACK

The "Anna Kournikova" virus, promised digital pictures of the young tennis star.
What you got was the chance to send the virus to EVERYONE in your
Outlook address book!
BACK

Is Bill Gates the Millennium's New Bounty Hunter???
In 2003 Microsoft announces a $5M reward program to help catch virus authors.

This presentation would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of the following persons and/or Websites.
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://davaodiamond.com
http://www.virus-scan-software.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://images.google.com
http://www.theage.com.au/news http://news.cnet.com
http://www.theage.com.au
http://hubpages.com
http://www.jrwhipple.com
http://marsbox.com/ http://www.chebucto.ns.ca
http://news.cnet.com
http://www.virusbtn.com
http://www.corbinball.com
http://groups.csail.mit.edu
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://microasist.com.mx
http://www.sophos.com
http://articles.techrepublic.com
http://vx.netlux.org
http://www.sodahead.com
End of Section

Company name

Antivirus software is a class of program that searches a hard drive and floppy disk for any known or potential viruses
Antivirus program runs in the Random Accesses Memory of a computer
Anti-virus software typically uses two different techniques to accomplish this:
• Examining files to look for known viruses by means of a virus dictionary
• Identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection
Most commercial anti-virus software uses both of these approaches, with an emphasis on the virus dictionary approach.

Source System
Destination System
Interception
Disinfection
Alert
Video

AVG : AVG Free provides you with basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows and is compatible with Windows XP and
Vista.
Norton Antivirus: Well known antivirus software, use for protection against spyware, worms and viruses.
MacFee Virus Scan : It is a leading brand name when it comes to antivirus software. It offers easy and quick download
The shield Deluxe : It is simple to use and is vista compatible, offers automatic updates and weekly virus scans. It cost about $29.99.
CA Antivirus : This is user friendly updates and scans are available at a click of mouse. Automatic file scanning, automatic email scanning, automatic live updates, scheduled and on-demand hard drive scanning, archive scanning, interactive virus detection messages, threat outbreak warning system, file exclusion lists, file quarantine

Bit Defender : Easy to install and download processes, Real-time protection from spyware, malware and viruses, automatic hourly updates, Minimal use of system resources, Anti-phishing tools.
Kaspersky Antivirus : Kaspersky includes important anti-virus software functions such as real-time email, file and web scanning, as well as the ability to remove spyware
NOD32 : The NOD32 anti-virus software by ESET is a novel virus program that provides real-time protection against worms, Trojans, spyware, malware, phishing and hackers
Panda Antivirus : Download and install process is smooth and fast.
Panda's Antivirus software comes with an virus and spyware protection. Panda allows you to block, delete, clean, and quarantine infected files and does not slow your pc down during virus scans which is helpful to those constantly on your PC
Trend Micro : It is anti-virus plus Anti-spyware now gives its customers the tools it needs to battle malicious spyware, amongst things like trojans, hackers, worms, and adware.

History of Antivirus
Back in 1988 viruses grabbed the mass media attention and some of the best researchers in the antivirus world begun their work before 1989. So 1988 was the year in which antivirus comerciants emerged
By 1990 the following antivirus products were available on the market
• AntiVirus Plus (Iris)
• Certus (Certus International)
• Data Physician (Digital
Dispatch)
• Turbo Antivirus (Carmel)
• ThunderByte (ESaSS)
• Vaccine (Sophos)
• Vaccine (World Wide Data)
• Virex-PC (Microcom)
• Virucide (McAfee's Pro-Scan)
(Parsons)
• Virusafe (Elia Shim)
• ViruScan (McAfee)
• Prot (Frisk Software)
• V-Analyst (BRM)
• Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus
Toolkit (S&S)
• Vet (Cybec)
• VirusBuster (Hunix)
• Virscan (IBM)
• Vi-Spy (RG Software

http://www.antivirusworld.com/articles/history.php
http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/antivirus-history-277310.html
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/harvard-extension-schools-computer-science-e-1-understand/2736desktop-firewalls-video.htm

Asfiya Khatoon

• In order to understand antispyware, we need to understand spyware first.
• What is Spyware?
– Spyware is a technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge .

• Spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties.
• Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program.

• Often installed without the user's consent, as a
– drive by download, or
– as a result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop up window.

• cookie is well-known for storing information about an
Internet user on their own computer. If a Website stores information about you in a cookie that you don't know about, that cookie can be considered a form of spyware.

•
While according to the privacy policies of the companies, there will be no sensitive or identifying data collected from your system and you shall remain anonymous
•
It still remains the fact, that the internet user have a
"live" server sitting on his PC that is sending information about him and his surfing habits to a remote location.

•
Excessive pop-ups.
• Slow performance of user’s computer
•
Misuse of data: your privacy and personal information are at risk
•
Security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software

• Its very simple. Use Anti spyware software.
• Identifies, Prevents and safely eliminates potentially unwanted and malicious programs.
• There are a number of anti spyware softwares that are available on the Internet.

• Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products designed to remove or block spyware.
• Programs such as Ad-aware SE , Spybot –Search & Destroy rapidly gained popularity as effective tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs.
• More recently Microsoft acquired the Windows AntiSpyware beta and releasing it as a free download for Genuine Windows XP and Windows 2003 users. Later, Microsoft renamed the beta software to Windows Defender , and it was released as a free download and is included as standard with Windows Vista.

•
Other well-known commercial anti-spyware products include:
– Webroot software’s Spy Sweeper.
– PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor.
– Drive Sentry.
– SUPER Anti Spyware.
– Sunbelt Softwares’ Counterspy.
– Trend Micro’s Hijack This.

• Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec, McAfee and
Sophos have come later to the table, adding antispyware features to their existing anti-virus products.

Web sites:
•
•
•
•

Text Books:
1.
Blocking spam and spyware for Dummies by Peter H. Gregory and Mike Simon .
2.
PC Magazine Fighting Spyware, Viruses and Malware by Ed
Tittel.
3.
Securing your information in an insecure world: what you must know about hackers and identity thieves by Hassan Osman.

While most of it is the work of this Author, some of the information or short excerpts are or might be from (a) the Public Domain, and/or (b) compilation of information from "other sources available on the
Internet“. Therefore where applicable, ALL respective credits, and respective benefits of Copyright for such works remain with the respective original authors and/or Owners of applicable Copyrights.
Copyright © 2008 by
Kimberly L. Bolanos & Ayesha Fatima & Asfiya Khatoon
All rights reserved.

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The End