Computer Viruses Standard A-4 (Safety Unit)

Need to Know 1.Computer Crimes 2.Types of Computer Crimes 3.Computer Virus 4.Types of Infections 5.How computer viruses and biological viruses are similar 6.Prevention Methods 7.Anti-Virus Software

What are Computer Crimes? ______________committed through the use of a computer. It can also involve the theft of a computer and any equipment associated with the computer.

Types of Computer Crimes ____________ –Conduct that involves the manipulation of a computer or computer data in order to obtain money, property, or value dishonestly or to cause loss. ______________ –Involves invading someone else’s computer, usually for personal gain or just the satisfaction of invasion.

Other Computer Crimes __________________ –An employee uses a company’s computer for personal use such as running a small business, keeping records of an outside organization, or keeping personal records. _______________ –Changing data before it is entered into the computer or after is has been entered into the computer.

Computer Viruses A ________ is a program which 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 ____________—small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs ___________—an virus moves around in e- mail messages and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim’s address book ____________—a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself ____________—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)

Types of Infections ____________________ –Virus that does not cause its damage until a certain date or until the system has been booted a certain number of times. __________________ –Virus triggered by the appearance or disappearance of specified data.

An Ounce of Prevention 1.Don’t share storage devices with anyone. 2.Don’t download anything from the Internet 3.Install anti-virus prevention software on your computer. 4.Never recycle storage devices that you know once contained a virus. 5.Don’t download an attachment file from the Internet because it could be infected with a virus.

An Ounce of Prevention (continued) 6.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, and an executable can do any sort of damage it wants. Once you run it, you have given it permission to do anything of your computer.

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

Discussion Questions 1.Why do you think someone would want to create a virus, knowing that it would harm others and their computers? 2.How can we prevent ourselves from becoming a victim of a computer virus?

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, what would you decide for the hacker who created the computer virus? How did you come to this conclusion?

Sources (numerous resources on computer viruses, hoaxes, antivirus software, etc.) (virus template for PowerPoint)

Brainstorming Activities 1.Give examples of ways in which the computer has become important to our everyday lives. 2.Discuss viruses as they pertain to the human body (illnesses), and why it is important to contain them. 3.Discuss computer viruses and why they are important to the health of our computers. 4.Name computer viruses.