TOPIC 3

• A computer virus is a program, script, or macro designed to cause damage, steal personal information, modify data, send e-mail, display messages, or some combination of these actions.
• When the virus is executed, it spreads by copying itself into or over data files, programs, or boot sector of a computer's hard drive, or potentially anything else writable.
• To help spread an infection the virus writers use detailed knowledge of security vulnerabilities, zero days, or social engineering to gain access to a host's computer
• A Trojan horse is a program that appears to be something safe, but in is performing tasks such as giving access to your computer or sending personal information to other computers.
• Trojan horses are one of the most common methods a criminal uses to infect your computer and collect personal information from your computer.
• What a worm may refer to


  • Destructive self-replicating program containing code capable of gaining access to computers or networks
  • CD that can be written to and then read from thereafter
  • Series of games developed by the Team 17 Company
• Worm


  Destructive self-replicating program containing code capable of gaining access to computers or networks
• First developed by John Shoch and Jon Hupp at Xerox PARC


  1978
• Once within the computer or network, the worm causes harm by deleting, modifying, distributing, or otherwise manipulating data
• Robert T. Morris developed the Morris Worm, which became the first Internet worm


  1988
• WORM


  Write Once Read Many, a CD that can be written to and then read from thereafter
• Worms


  • Series of games developed by the Team 17 Company
• ILOVEYOU, sometimes referred to as Love Bug or Love Letter, was a computer worm that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers on and after 5 May 2000 local time in the Philippines when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs".
• Messages generated in the Philippines began to spread westwards through corporate email systems.
• Because the worm used mailing lists as its source of targets, the messages often appeared to come from acquaintances and were therefore often regarded as "safe" by their victims, providing further incentive to open them.
• Only a few users at each site had to access the attachment to generate millions more messages that crippled mail systems and overwrote millions of files on computers in each successive network.
• The malware originated in the Pandacan neighborhood of Manila in the Philippines on May 5, 2000, thereafter following daybreak westward across the world, moving first to Hong Kong, then to Europe and finally the United States, as employees began their workday that Friday morning.
• The outbreak was later estimated to have caused US$5.5–8.7 billion in damages worldwide, and estimated to cost US$15 billion to remove the worm.
• Within ten days, over fifty million infections had been reported, and it is estimated that 10% of internet-connected computers in the world had been affected.
• Damage cited was mostly the time and effort spent getting rid of the infection and recovering files from backups.
• To protect themselves, The Pentagon, CIA, the British Parliament and most large corporations decided to completely shut down their mail systems.
• This virus affected over all the computers in the world at that time and was one of the world's most dangerous computer related disasters of all time


  ILOVEYOU virus
• On 5 May 2000, two young Filipino computer programmers named Reonel Ramones (right) and Onel de Guzman (left) became targets of a criminal investigation by agents of the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
• Local Internet service provider Sky Internet had reported receiving numerous contacts from European computer users alleging that malware (in the form of the "ILOVEYOU" worm) had been sent via the ISP's servers.
• After surveillance and investigation by Darwin Bawasanta of Sky Internet, the NBI traced a frequently appearing telephone number to Ramones' apartment in Manila. His residence was searched and Ramones was arrested and placed on inquest investigation before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
• Onel de Guzman was likewise charged in absentia. At that point, the NBI were unsure what felony or crime would apply.
• It was suggested they be charged with violating Republic Act 8484 (the Access Device Regulation Act), a law designed mainly to penalize credit card fraud, since both used pre-paid (if not stolen) Internet cards to purchase access to ISPs.
• Another idea was that they be charged with malicious mischief, a felony (under the Philippines Revised Penal Code of 1932) involving damage to property.
• The drawback here was that one of its elements, aside from damage to property, was intent to damage, and de Guzman had claimed during custodial investigations that he may have unwittingly released the worm.
• To show intent, the NBI investigated AMA Computer College, where de Guzman had dropped out at the very end of his final year.
• They found that, for his undergraduate thesis, de Guzman had proposed the implementation of a trojan to steal Internet login passwords.
• This way, he proposed, users would finally be able to afford an Internet connection.
• The proposal was rejected by the College of Computer Studies board, prompting de Guzman to cancel his studies the day before graduation.
• Since there were no laws in the Philippines against writing malware at the time, both Ramones and de Guzman were released with all charges dropped by state prosecutors.
• To address this legislative deficiency, the Philippine Congress enacted Republic Act No. 8792, otherwise known as the E-Commerce Law, in July 2000, just two months after the worm outbreak.
• In 2002, the ILOVEYOU virus obtained a world record for being the most virulent computer virus at the time.
• The reason why Onel de Guzman created the worm is because of his rejected thesis proposal that steals internet login passwords to afford an internet connection since it was too expensive that time.
• All of the major operating systems can contract a computer virus.
• Whether you use Microsoft Windows, MacOS, or a Linux variant, your computer can be at risk.
• You can protect your computer from viruses by installing an antivirus protection program.