Viruses Still a Big Problem for Business

Title: Viruses Still a Big Problem for Business

Word Count: 995

News Item: Viruses Still a Big Problem for Business, Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://netcrime.itproportal.com/?p=427

Area of Impact: Business

Author: Simon Moores

Source: Netcrime Report

URL: http://netcrime.itproportal.com/?p=427

Date of Publication: February 28th, 2006

Date of Submission: June 26, 2006

APresentation of the Issue

In May of 2005, one in every 38 e-mails was virus-infected. In other words, three percent of all emails contained a virus.

According to a survey about the prevalence of viruses in a number of companies, 99.7% of the companies in the survey stated that they had experienced at least one virus attack before taking the survey. 51% said they experienced a virus "disaster" that led to catastrophic consequences, throughout the year before the survey. Also, the rate of virus-infected computers has been doubling every year for the last decade.

According to the ICSA, (Anti-virus consulting firm), by the year 2006, the number of companies that were infected with viruses had risen by 20 percent. It also estimates that viruses cost companies around $55 Billion dollars in damages in the year 2003 alone.

The most important issue to businesses is the increasing loss of confidence that companies have in the internet as a safe transactional medium.

BThe IT Background of the Issue

Computer viruses affect millions of people every day. They can be transferred though emails or file transfers. The three main threats are Trojans, worms and viruses.

The term 'computer virus' has come to mean one of the three threats mentioned before.

A virus is a program that installs itself on a user's computer and runs without the user's consent. Its sole purpose is to duplicate and infect several computers, usually by copying a virus code to an application, such as .com and .exe files. Viruses usually perform certain functions, such as displaying a message after the computer has been shut down 100 times, for example.

The virus is a tiny file only a few hundred bytes in size, which contains instructions. Most importantly, the virus' function is to replicate. To do this, all of a virus' instructions are added to a program. When the program is started, the virus is "turned on", or activated, and starts spreading through the computer. Different viruses affect different parts of the computer, such as hard disk or diskettes. In case of a hard disk infection, the virus replicates itself on to the boot sector. Then it starts copying itself as soon as the user boots the hard disk. Every virus has a different function. For example, some viruses format the computer instantly, leading to the loss of all information of the computer (Engelfriet, 2005).

Just like viruses, worms move independently through a network and the internet. They can also be transmitted through email.

On the other hand, Trojans work in a stealthy manner. They do not multiply independently like worms and viruses. They are introduced onto a computer through email as an attachment that looks harmless, or through a worm. It can even be downloaded from the internet under the impression that it is something else.

CImpact of the Issue

Thanks to the Internet, businesses have suffered greatly over the last few years. While the Internet makes it a lot easier for us to do business, it also makes it easier for con artists to "do business". (Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc 2004).

Viruses date back more than 20 years; however computers are still incapable of resisting infection.

Viruses are extremely dangerous and can cause permanent and irreparable damage to PCs and servers. So, viruses attack our precious information, while spam e-mail brings us the viruses to our computer.

Most of our viruses these days are created by hackers who aim to infect a large number of computers worldwide via email and internet websites. In 2003, viruses and worms cost individuals and companies around 12$ billion. The "My Doom" worm cost companies millions of dollars in cleanup and downtime expenses. For that reason, "the messaging and collaboration infrastructure is a critical focal point for businesses in the fight against malicious software." (Microsoft, 2005).

30% of all UK companies have suffered greatly of viruses and other malicious codes because they lack the IT staff and budget to deal with it.

For example, a large American banking company was forced to shut down 13,000 cash machines, and an international airline wasn't able to sell tickets online because their computers were infected with worms. (Greek, 2006)

Not only companies, but individuals have also been affected badly. There are many cases where individuals are unaware of the latest viruses and problems and lack the proper skills to amend the vulnerabilities.

Some people have even experience problems with brand new PCs. In an interview with Personal Computer World Magazine, a woman told her story of her trial with a brand new computer she had bought. When she first connected to the internet, she immediately became infected. She then had to pay over 100 dollars just for a clean-up, not to mention that the damages to her company were "unquantifiable". (Greek, 2006)

D A Solution to a Problem Arising from the Issue

The best solution to prevent or deal with viruses is to install antivirus software such as Norton Antivirus, a product of Symantec. Antivirus programs are created to clean viruses from a computer. A properly functioning Antivirus program should automatically scan a PC for viruses and delete them. It should also update itself on a regular basis so that it can protect the computer from the newest viruses that come up. Every time a new virus is discovered, technicians working for an Antivirus software company analyze the virus code. They try to find out as much as they can about the new virus so that they can deal with it. They discover how it is transmitted, what damage it causes to a computer, and then they devise a way to repair it. However, the solution might fail considering the limitation of Antivirus software.

Antivirus software are always present online, however they requires a certain fee to be paid. The way these programs work is they compare the content of all files on the computer to a certain virus database of virus definitions. If the content of a file matches that of the database, then there is a virus present. There are about 200 new viruses each month, which is why it is essential for an individual to update his/her virus definitions on a regular basis.

Word Count: 995

ESelection and Use of Sources

References:

Benson, R. (2006). Computer viruses. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://www.bcentral.co.uk/technology/security/computer-viruses.mspx

Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc (2004). Internet scams bad for business, Retrieved May 15, 2006 from: http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=535

Engelfriet, A. (2005). Infected: Computer viruses and Trojan horses. Retrieved June 7, 2006 from http://www.iusmentis.com/security/viruses/viruses-trojans/

Featherly, K. (2000). Virus threat's bad and getting worse - ICSA survey. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://www.landfield.com/isn/mail-archive/2000/Oct/0126.html

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Microsoft (2006). When band things happen to good companies. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/support/articles/when_bad_things_happen_to_good_companies.mspx

Moores, S. (2004). Opinion: A bad case of worms. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://comment.silicon.com/simonmoores/0,3800005547,39126666,00.htm

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What is antivirus software? (2005). Retrieved June 7, 2006 from http://www.webster.edu/depts/acs/antivirus_software.html

Main Article

News Item: Viruses Still a Big Problem for Business, Retrieved May 15, 2006 from http://netcrime.itproportal.com/?p=427

Viruses Still a Big Problem for Business

by Simon Moores

February 28th, 2006

The BBC reports that computer viruses are the single biggest cause of security problems for UK businesses.

A survey by the Department of Trade and Industry found almost 50% of the biggest security breaches suffered by companies in the last two years were due to infection by malicious programs.

In some cases viruses crippled key systems such as e-mail for more than a day while companies cleaned up.

The good news revealed by the survey was that the number of firms caught out by viruses had dropped by almost one-third since the last time the study was done in 2004.

Past viruses were designed to cause large amounts of indiscriminate damage typically by taking down targets' networks but today's viruses have become more insidious.

However, almost 25% of those surveyed said they had no defenses in place to protect them against spyware. As a result one in seven of the most serious incidents were caused by machines infected with spyware.

The full results of the survey will be released at the Info Security Europe show to help at Olympia in London from 25-27 April.