Question

Assignment task

Use your favorite search engine to find details about (1) virus/piece of malware. Upload an MS Word or .PDF document that summarizes each of the following

Item 1: Introduction - What is meant by malware/viruses? What is their history? Are malware and/or viruses recent developments in computer technology or have they been around for a while? What piece of malware/virus are choosing to write about and why?  

Item 2: Virus/Malware details:

1. Name of malware/virus
2. When and where was this virus/malware first discovered?
3. How prevalent is this virus/malware? Is it regionalized by geography or business sector? Is it worldwide? How many computers/victims has it claimed?
4. What has been the impact of this particular virus/malware? Has it damaged computers/data? Has it caused the loss of revenue or reputation? Has it physically damaged anything?
5. Description of the virus/malware:

What specifically does the virus/malware do? How does it infect targets? What does it do once it infects a host? Does it change registry settings, does it leave behind malicious code, etc...? Is it destructive? If so how?

Item 3 - Malware/Virus removal - How effective is software in removing it? What has to be done to remove it? What can be done to prevent being impacted by it?

Example of what I am looking for: Leading anti-virus/malware products such as <Name some products> are effective in removing the malicious .DLL, They do this by first configuring Internet Explorer to not run the .DLL and then deleting the malicious .DLL itself.

Answer 1

Let's discuss all the 3 Items one by one:

Item 1:

• Virus: A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its code.
• Malware: Malware is any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network.
• History: The first computer virus, called "Creeper system", was an experimental self-replicating virus released in 1971.
• It was filling up the hard drive until a computer could not operate any further. This virus was created by BBN technologies in the US.
• The first computer virus for MS-DOS was "Brain" and was released in 1986.
• Unexpected pop-ups which appear on your screen are a typical sign of a malware infection that wreaks havoc on your computer.
• This form of malware is known as spyware and is designed to collect and steal users' sensitive data without their knowledge.

Item 2:

Name of the malware: Code Red

• It first surfaced in 2001 and was discovered by two eEye Digital Security employees.
• It was named Code Red because the pair were drinking Code Red Mountain Dew at the time of discovery.
• Once infected, it will proceed to make a hundred copies of itself but due to a bug in the programming.
• The worm targeted computers with Microsoft IIS web server installed, exploiting a buffer overflow problem in the system.
• It will duplicate even more and ends up eating a lot of the systems resources.it will duplicate even more and ends up eating a lot of the systems resources.

Name of the malware: Melissa

• Named after an exotic dancer from Florida, it was created by David L. Smith in 1999.
• The virus will mail itself to the top 50 people in the user’s email address book.
• It increases the email traffic, disrupting the email services of governments and corporations.

Item 3:

• Antivirus software works by identifying similar patterns from its database or using tools to help predict when an attack will occur.
• It uses a multi-pronged approach because viruses can adapt, transform, and get stronger over time.
• When the antivirus finds and malicious file, it, first of all, isolate it from all the execution so that it doesn't get executed and after that antivirus finally deletes the malicious file itself.

Please let me know in the comments in case of any confusion. Also, please upvote if you like.