computer virus :: essays research papers

OverviewIn the following report, ready reckoner viruses will be explained in detail. A lengthy and informative description of the evolution and floor on microcomputer viruses will be given, to give you a background of their origin for some understanding of how they came to be.The next segment in the report is on how to combat computer viruses with the development of anti-virus applications.The current status of microcomputer viruses will also be discussed, naming the most common references of viruses and the most harmful type at this present point in time.Details of the most juvenile outbreaks of computer viruses, such as the Melissa, I Love You and the most recent Anna Kournikova viruses will be explained, and why they are so harmful.I will also give you my recommendations on how to combat this threat of computer viruses, what Anti-virus Applications that I look at should be used, and why updating your virus definitions for these programs on a regular basis is so vital and imp ortant in your quest to have a happy and uninfected computer.And finally, I give you my conclusion in which I can only hope that you will find helpful. A History Of data processor VirusesThe term Virus was not used to describe a self-replicating computer program until the American electrical engineer named Fred Cohen associated the term with it in 1983.In the 1950s at Bell Laboratories, John von Neumanns theory in which he made in 1949 was put to the test. His theory stated that it was (MS Encarta 98, Virus computer, History) theoretically possible for a computer program to replicate. His theory was tested after a game called Core Wars was developed whereby (MS Encarta 98, Virus computer, History) Players created tiny computer programs that attacked, erased, and tried to propagate on an opponents system.In the late 1960s through to the early 1970s, the program called The Rabbit was constantly appear on the mainframes at the time. Kaspersky (www.avp.ch) These programs cloned themse lves, occupied system resources, thus lowering the productivity of the system. These viruses were only localised, as they did not spread from one system to another(prenominal) and are thought to have only been pranks or mistakes by programmers. The Univac 1108 and IBM 360/370 systems were infected with one of the first known computer viruses, Pervading Animal. This virus attached itself to executable files, which damaged the infected file. In 1986 the first stealth virus hit IBM Compatible PCs, called the BRAIN virus.