-=> Mocking Shaun to Kurt <=-
  (Mock, mOck, moCk, mocK)
 SB> Thanks for the info man,
 SB> After doing this assignment I think that
 SB> viruses are a pain in the ass,
most people who get infected would probably agree with that sentiment...
 SB> I have found out heaps on viruses I
 SB> never knew about. I now want to seek more interesting information on
 SB> these little pain in the asses. Could you please answer these
 SB> questions??
i can try...
 SB> When was the first virus ever created?? What year??
the first virus or the first ibm pc virus... my understanding is that
the first virus ever was written sometime in november (the 11th i think
it was) iin 1983 by fred cohen, which he then demonstrated the following
day to his comp. security prof. at u.s.c. and then they proceded to
study the concept of computer viruses to see what impact they would have
on the computer user community... his prof (leonard adelman) was the one
who coined the term computer virus... the virus(es) in that study very
likely never saw the light of day, however so you won't hear about
scanners detecting it(them)...
the first pc virus was made in 1986/7 and it was called the pakistani
brain...
 SB> Will there be a penalty on transferring viruses on computers e.t.c??
that depends on the country... in some (like switzerland) the transfer
of such materials is illegal... but it's a rather bothersome law - after
all, how are anti-virus vendors supposed to study a virus if the users
can't send the new viruses to them legally?
there are better laws for curbing virus spread that don't even refer to
computer viruses specifically... they make it illegal to gain
unauthorized access, or make unauthorized modification to software and
data on someone elses computer... one can also be charged with
incitement to commit either of these crimes (which applies to the
spreading of viruses in the computer underground and such)...
but like i said, computer crime laws are country specific... i think
both canada and england have the unauthorized access/modification laws
in some form or another, and i know that england has the incitement one
but i don't know about the states (they leave computer crime laws up to
the individual states to a large degree) except that if you write a
virus and a us government system is affected, you better hope they can't
find out who you are because they will put you in jail...
 SB> Will viruses ever be distroyed?? Is there a way to get rid of all of
 SB> them for  good??
there is a way to get rid of all known viruses, but at any given time
there are always a handful of unknown viruses which won't be stoppable,
and virus authors aren't likely to stop writing new viruses so the
answer is no, viruses will never be destroyed... the silicon utopia that
used to exist before viruses and trojans will never happen again...
 SB> What people create them?? eg: Wacko's, Loonies e.t.c
actually, as i recall sarah gordon's study of computer virus writers
showed them to be for the most part just adolescent kids with a lot of
computer knowledge... (the same mentality as those kids who might commit
a some petty theft, or vandalize property with spray paint)...
 SB> Are there different types of viruses?? Hardware, Software destroying??
there are different types of viruses but the type of a virus refers more
to the software object it infects, the platform it infects on, and
characteristics involving payloads, memory residency, and the ability to
actively hide themselves...
no viruses destroy hardware, all viruses alter software (you could call
it destroy, or corrupt, but modification from the uninfected state has
to happen)...
... don't scan this tagline, it has the 141$FLU...
--- Blue Wave v?.?? [NR]
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