Malicious Code :: Essays Papers

Malicious Code Introduction "The wind of change came on 26th March in the form of an email cyclone called Melissa. Moreover, during 1999 numerous changes in the level of computer virus technology were seen," Armstrong (May 2000, p1). From an organisational point of view, societies around the world are just learning about the level of importance that computer security against virus attacks and the critical significance of cybercrime. Companies around the world lost vast amounts of time, money and resources due to the lack of defense systems and lack of knowledge. Companies must ensure that the all data processing equipment like computers, routers and networks are robust and secure to withstand any type of malicious attack. The following report details some of the more common malicious code specifically viruses, explaining some of the damage, which these very powerful viruses can inflict on to any computer that it is not well prepared for this kinds of attacks. Armstrong (July 2000, p1), states that: ‘February's big story for the information security marketplace was the distributed denial-of-service attacks, which rendered the likes of Yahoo!, eBay, and E*Trade helpless. Most recently, news of the LoveBug hit. While statisticians still grapple with the costs associated with recuperating from this newest bug's sting, the latest reports indicate that approximately 90 per cent of networks worldwide were affected. Recovery costs associated with the LoveBug are estimated to range from about $600 million upwards to a big $10 billion. Along with all these woes, companies also have to fend off attacks - not only from the outside, but more importantly from inside. Malicious Code - A Virus According to Pfleeger (1997, p179) A virus is a program that can pass on malicious code to other nonmalicious programs by modifying them. The term virus arises because the affected program acts like a biological virus: modification of good programs is like a virus that infects other healthy subjects. In Australia damaging data in a computer carries heavy penalties, according to Carroll (1997, p33) in New South Wales, section 310 of the Crimes Act as amended in 1989 states that a person intentionally and without authority or lawful excuse destroys, alters or erases data, or inserts data, or interrupts or obstructs the lawful use of a computer is liable to ten years of penal servitude or a fine of $100,000 or both . According to Fites, Kratz & Brebner (1989) viruses or worms , program contructions which can degrade an operating system, destroy data files, and do much damage to the information a computer works with.