Webworthy-computer viruses

Computer viruses.

Note The lecture on computer viruses (Gresham College, London, 6pm 21 February 2002) will include discussion of real viruses, details of how they work, and discussion of how they may be tackled. These notes provide some background, history, and further information.  Computers can do anything: from running spreadsheets, word processors, power stations to music synthesisers and missile control s...

Detecting Undetectable Computer Viruses

Signature-based detection relies on patterns present in viruses and provides a relatively simple and efficient method for detecting known viruses. At present, most anti-virus systems rely primarily on signature detection. Metamorphic viruses are one of the most difficult types of viruses to detect. Such viruses change their internal structure, which provides an effective means of evading signat...

Computer Viruses and Ethics

There has been considerable interest in computer viruses since they first appeared in 1981, and especially in the past few years as they have reached epidemic numbers in many personal computer environments. Viruses have been written about as a security problem, as a social problem, and as a possible means of performing useful tasks in a distributed manner. Most users of computers view viruses a...

Computer Viruses: A Global Perspective

Practical Applications of Computer Viruses

Computer viruses can create many problems for computer systems with inadequate integrity controls, and have caused widespread damage all around the world, but they can also provide a powerful parallel processing mechanism which could have dramatic impacts on how we use computers. Several practical computer viruses are already in everyday use, and new applications are being developed all around ...