Computer Viruses Standard A-4 (Safety Unit) Prepared by Rita K. Beard Crestwood High School

Definition A virus is a program that reproduces itself, hides in other computer code without permission, and does nasty or undesirable things not intended by its victim. Computer viruses are called viruses because they share some of the traits of biological viruses. Computer viruses pass from computer to computer like a biological virus passes from person to person.

Types of Infection Virus—small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs E-mail viruses—an e-mail virus moves around in e-mail messages and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim’s e-mail address book Worm—a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself Trojan horse—a computer program that claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard drive)

Brainstorming Activities Give examples of ways in which the computer has become important to our everyday lives. Discuss viruses as they pertain to the human body (illnesses), and why it is important to contain them. Discuss computer viruses and why they are important to the health of our computers. Name computer viruses. Common computer viruses: Email viruses: Melissa virus--global phenomenon in March 1999—so powerful it forced Microsoft and a number of vary large companies to completely turn off their email systems until the cirus could be contained ILOVEYOU virus in 2000—had a similarly devastating effect

Computer Terms You Need to Know Hard Drive Computer Software Email Floppy Disk Crash Download Internet Anti-Virus Software Cyberspace Hard Drive: the internal storage unit for software in the computer Computer Software: the programs that a computer uses to complete a task E-Mail: (electronic mail) messages sent from one computer to another Floppy Disk: a temporary disk which is used for storage and retrieval in a computer Crash: this occurs when the hard drive software becomes scrambled or deleted and causes the computer to malfunction Download: the process of acquiring a file or program from another computer Internet: the network of phone lines, computers, and devices that connect computers worldwide Anti-Virus Software: software application programs which will scan disks or other programs being loaded into a computer, detect a virus, and stop its spread Cyberspace: the virtual world of digital communication

Discussion Questions Why do you think someone would want to create a virus, knowing that it would harm others and their computers? How can we prevent ourselves from becoming a victim of a computer virus? Hard Drive: the internal storage unit for software in the computer Computer Software: the programs that a computer uses to complete a task E-Mail: (electronic mail) messages sent from one computer to another Floppy Disk: a temporary disk which is used for storage and retrieval in a computer Crash: this occurs when the hard drive software becomes scrambled or deleted and causes the computer to malfunction Download: the process of acquiring a file or program from another computer Internet: the network of phone lines, computers, and devices that connect computers worldwide Anti-Virus Software: software application programs which will scan disks or other programs being loaded into a computer, detect a virus, and stop its spread Cyberspace: the virtual world of digital communication

An Ounce of Prevention Don’t share floppy disks with anyone. Don’t download anything from the Internet Install anti-virus prevention software on your computer. Never recycle floppy disks that you know once contained a virus. Don’t download an attachment file from the Internet because it could be infected with a virus. Hard Drive: the internal storage unit for software in the computer Computer Software: the programs that a computer uses to complete a task E-Mail: (electronic mail) messages sent from one computer to another Floppy Disk: a temporary disk which is used for storage and retrieval in a computer Crash: this occurs when the hard drive software becomes scrambled or deleted and causes the computer to malfunction Download: the process of acquiring a file or program from another computer Internet: the network of phone lines, computers, and devices that connect computers worldwide Anti-Virus Software: software application programs which will scan disks or other programs being loaded into a computer, detect a virus, and stop its spread Cyberspace: the virtual world of digital communication

An Ounce of Prevention (continued) Never double-click on an attachment that contains an executable that arrives as an e-mail attachment. Attachments that come in as Word Files (.DOC), spreadsheets (.XLS), images (.GIF AND .JPG), etc., are data files and they can do no damage. A file with an extension like EXE, COM, or VBS is an executable file, and an executable file can do any sort of damage it is designed to do. Once you run it, you have given it permission to do what it was designed to do on your computer. Hard Drive: the internal storage unit for software in the computer Computer Software: the programs that a computer uses to complete a task E-Mail: (electronic mail) messages sent from one computer to another Floppy Disk: a temporary disk which is used for storage and retrieval in a computer Crash: this occurs when the hard drive software becomes scrambled or deleted and causes the computer to malfunction Download: the process of acquiring a file or program from another computer Internet: the network of phone lines, computers, and devices that connect computers worldwide Anti-Virus Software: software application programs which will scan disks or other programs being loaded into a computer, detect a virus, and stop its spread Cyberspace: the virtual world of digital communication

Debate/Discussion Suppose a person’s medical records were corrupted by a computer virus, and that person died because of faulty (or missing) medical information. If you were the judge and were to decide the fate of a guilty computer virus creator, what you you decide? How did you come to this conclusion? Hard Drive: the internal storage unit for software in the computer Computer Software: the programs that a computer uses to complete a task E-Mail: (electronic mail) messages sent from one computer to another Floppy Disk: a temporary disk which is used for storage and retrieval in a computer Crash: this occurs when the hard drive software becomes scrambled or deleted and causes the computer to malfunction Download: the process of acquiring a file or program from another computer Internet: the network of phone lines, computers, and devices that connect computers worldwide Anti-Virus Software: software application programs which will scan disks or other programs being loaded into a computer, detect a virus, and stop its spread Cyberspace: the virtual world of digital communication

Is it really a computer virus? http://www.vmyths.com/ (website to check to find out if a program is really a virus or just a hoax)

Popular Anti-Virus Software Program Norton (Symantec Company) McAfee (Network Associates Company) Command Software Systems, Inc.

Sources http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm http://www.cert.org/other_sources/viruses.html (numerous resources on computer viruses, hoaxes, antivirus software, etc.) www.animationfactory.com (virus template for PowerPoint)