Computer Science

Seminar 4/6/11: Computer Viruses, Shikhar Rastogi

The term computer virus is derived from and in some sense is analogous to a biological virus. Biological viral infections are spread by the virus injecting its contents into a far larger organism’s cell and then the infected cell is converted into a biological factory producing copies of the virus. Similarly, a computer virus is a computer program created to infect other programs with copies of itself. It has the ability to clone itself, so that it can multiply, constantly seeking new host environments.

There has been a considerable interest in computer viruses since they first appeared in 1981. However, computer viruses have received serious attention in the past few years as they have reached epidemic numbers in many personal computer environments. The presentation will first look at the history and evolution of viruses through time. Next I will talk about the structure and operation of a computer virus. In the end we will look at some of the ways to defend against computer viruses.

Sources: McAfee, John, and Collin Haynes. Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, And Other Threats To Your System. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989. Print.
Solomon, Alan. PC Viruses: Detection, Analysis, and Cure. London: Springer-Verlag, 1991. Print.
Szor, Peter. The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense. CrawfordsVille: Addison-Wesley, 2005. Print.
Spafford, Eugene H. “Computer Viruses as Artificial Life.” Artificial Life 1.3 (1994). MIT Press. Web.