---A PRESENTATION

Presented by:
biswadeep gupta
Debasish Das
Debojyoti sen
purkayastha
A computer virus is a software
program capable of reproducing itself
and usually capable of causing great
harm to files or other programs on
the same computer
The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all
phrase to include all types of malware. Malware includes
computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malicious
and unwanted software), including true viruses. Viruses are
sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses,
which are technically different. A worm can exploit security
vulnerabilities to spread itself to other computers without
needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan
horse is a program that appears harmless but has a hidden
agenda. Worms and Trojans, like viruses, may cause harm to
either a computer system's hosted data, functional
performance, or networking throughput, when they are
executed. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms
noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious.
Most personal computers are now connected to the Internet
and to local area networks, facilitating the spread of
malicious code. Today's viruses may also take advantage of
network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail,
Instant Messaging, and file sharing systems to spread.
The creeper virus was first deducted on
ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet
in the early 1970’s. A common
misconception was that a program called
ROTHER J was the first computer virus to
appear “in the wild”_ that is outside
the single lab or computer where it was
created , but that claim is false . The
first PC virus in the wild was a boot
sector virus called BRAIN, created in
1986 by the Farooq Alvi Brothers ,
operating out of Lahore, Pakistan
Viruses have targeted various
types of transmission media or
hosts. This list is not
exhaustive:

• Executable files.
• Volume Boot Records of floppy disks and hard disk
partitions.
• The master boot record (MBR) of a hard disk.
• System specific autorun script files( autorun.inf)
• Documents that contain macros.
• .Pdf files.
• Flash drives.
METHODS TO AVOID
DETECTIONS
 Avoiding bait files and other
undesirable hosts.
 Stealth
 Self modification
 Encryption with a variable key
 Polymorphic code
 Metamorphic code
The operating systems which come under Microsoft are very much
vulnerable to viruses. Microsoft software is targeted by virus writers
due to their desktop dominance, and is often criticized for including
many errors and holes for virus writers to exploit. Although Windows
is by far the most popular operating system for virus writers, some
viruses also exist on other platforms. Any operating system that
allows third-party programs to run can theoretically run viruses.
While Linux, and Unix in general, has always natively blocked normal
users from having access to make changes to the operating system
environment, Windows users are generally not. This difference has
continued partly due to the widespread use of administrator accounts
in contemporary versions like XP. In 1997, when a virus for Linux was
released – known as "Bliss" – leading antivirus vendors issued
warnings that Unix-like systems could fall prey to viruses just like
Windows. The Bliss virus may be considered characteristic of
viruses – as opposed to worms – on Unix systems. Bliss requires that
the user run it explicitly (so it is a Trojan), and it can only
infect programs that the user has the access to modify. Unlike
Windows users, most Unix users do not log in as an administrator user
except to install or configure software; as a result, even if a user
ran the virus, it could not harm their operating system. The Bliss
virus never became widespread, and remains chiefly a research
curiosity. Its creator later posted the source code to Usenet,
allowing researchers to see how it worked.
Many users install anti-virus software that can detect and
eliminate known viruses after the computer downloads or
runs the executable. There are two methods used by the
antivirus software to detect viruses. These are:
VIRUS , IF ANY , WHEN DETECTED
IN A COMPUTER CAN BE
REMOVED BY SCANNING THE FILE
OR THE DEVICE HOSTING IT BY
ANY EFFICIENT SOFTWARES
SUCH AS NOD32, AVIRA ,
KASPERSKY, AVG, NORTON ETC.
TO NAME A FEW. THESE
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARES USES
THE EARLY MENTIONED
METHODS TO DETECT AND CLEAN
VIRUS FROM THE HOST SYSTEM.
Reinstalling the operating system is another
approach to virus removal. It involves simply
reformatting the OS partition and installing the
OS from its original media.
This method has the benefits of being simple to
do, being faster than running multiple antivirus
scans, and is guaranteed to remove any
malware. Downsides include having to reinstall
all other software, reconfiguring, restoring user
preferences. User data can be backed up by
booting off of a Live CD or putting the hard drive
into another computer and booting from the
other computer's operating system (though care
must be taken not to transfer the virus to the
new computer).
 Virus is nothing but a program which disrupts the
normal functioning of our computer systems.
Computers attached to internet are more prone to
virus attacks and they can end up into crashing our
whole hard disk . So it would be wise to make a system
scan by any efficient antivirus software and also adding
firewalls into the system which would reduce the
vulnerability of the system to any threat from virus.