Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Reflections on Chapter 3
Viruses are a global threat to everyone who has their computer connected to the World Wide Web. A computer virus is a computer program that is designed to replicate itself by copying itself into the other programs stored in a computer. It may be benevolent or have a negative effect, such as causing a program to operate incorrectly or corrupting a computer's memory. People create viruses. A computer virus is the same as a viral infection in humans. Of course, most virus creators seem to fail to notice the point that they cause real damage to real people with their creations. Destroying everything on a person's hard disk is real damage. Forcing the people inside a large company to waste thousands of hours cleaning up after a virus is real damage. Even a silly message is real damage because a person then has to waste time getting rid of it. For this reason, the legal system is getting much harsher in punishing the people who create viruses. Computer viruses can be caught very easily and spreads it to other computers without you knowing. One important trick was the ability to load viruses into memory so they could keep running in the background as long as the computer remained on. People have the tendency to write the codes, and test it to make sure it spreads properly and then release the virus into a realm of the unknown. Viruses are a problem because they can make your computer run slower, corrupt files and stop them from working. In extreme cases they can also stop your computer from working. Computer viruses tend to grab our attention. On the one hand, viruses show us how vulnerable we are. A properly engineered virus can have an amazing effect on the worldwide Internet. On the other hand, they show how sophisticated and interconnected human beings have become. You can protect yourself against viruses with a few simple steps. The traditional way is supposed to combat e-mail viruses also but, you should be running a more secure operating program similar to UNIX and McAfee to name a couple. You never hear about viruses on these operating programs because the security features keep viruses and unwanted human visitors away from your hard disk. Be very wary of any email attachments you receive. If you do not know who it is from, delete the message. Otherwise first save the attachment to disk before opening it. As virus creators get more sophisticated, they learn new tricks. The most important rule is never open messages from unknown sources and update personal virus operating programs regularly.
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2 comments:
Hi, Leonardo.
It is good to read you article again.
As you said at the beginning that “Viruses are a global threat to everyone who has their computer connected to the World Wide Web. ” It is really true that the viruses are globe problem now because of the developing of the internet.
But I do not think “most virus creators seem to fail to notice the point that they cause real damage to real people with their creations.” Because some of them to create these viruses are just for making trouble for the real world, even I cannot understand, I did read some news about this. They not only destroy personal’s computer, but also steal useful information for illegal purpose.
You offered a lot of ways to protect our computers and I think that is very helpful.
Another thing I want to mention is that I think with the development of the technology, people will solve this problem in the future.
Hey Leonardo,
I can not understand why some one would want to be so malicious as to create a computer virus. I agree that viruses are a glabal threat considering virtually everything is digitized these days, from national security documents to hospital records. I am glad that governments are cracking down on the people who create these viruses, especially since I pay a few of my bills online. I am at particular risk because I connect to the internet using a satellite instead of a land line. I've recently started unplugging my computer and physically unhooking the connection wires from the computer even though I run Norton antivirus software. You just can't be too careful in my opinion. I hope Houbin is correct in saying that future technology will help prevent the spread of these horrible programs.
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