Originally, Virus writers were experimenting to see if they could do something specific. There was one, for instance, that would make the user type “Happy Birthday Joshi” on a specific date. Unfortunately, in this case, the author made a mistake. On that date, any 3 ½ in floppy disks in the machine at the time would be wiped clean.
As time went on, Virus Writers became more malicious. Their goal was to infect as many computers as possible. Once infected, the virus would try to spread through Network Shares. These were easy to catch, for the most part, since they also tried to copy to printer shares. It was obvious that something was going on when a shared printer suddenly started printing garbage characters.
The next evolution was when the internet became big. Virus Writers then started writing ‘mass mailing’ viruses where your computer got infected and immediately sent out emails to everyone in the user’s address book, enticing them to click on the attachment.
The most recent evolution brought money into the picture. This style uses ActiveX, which is a component of Internet Explorer. If someone either typos a website name and ends up at an infected website, they go to a hijacked website, or a legitimate site runs an infected Banner Advertisement, an ActiveX script runs. This opens a 1 pixel by 1 pixel Internet Explorer window in the background, without the user’s knowledge, and downloads a virus install executable directly to their computer. Once downloaded, it runs the executable. After a short wait, the malware notifies the user that their computer is ‘infected’ with hundreds of spyware/malware ‘infections’, offering to scan further. Sometimes it changed the background image, too. The virus then says that it can fix the computer, but you need to pay a certain amount to register the software. (Usually $35 to $55)
The software does nothing but make the computer a “zombie”, controlled by someone else. ‘Registering’ also opens the user up for Identity Theft.
All computers should have legitimate antivirus software installed. However, the antivirus software is only as good as its latest definitions. If the computer is running current up to date definitions, and someone were to release a new version of a virus, it is still possible to get infected by it. For instance, someone writes a virus and releases it right now. It can be up to 1 to 2 days before the antivirus vendors get a copy, figure out how it works, how to detect it, and how to remove it. During that time, the computer could be infected, and not know it since it doesn’t yet know what to look for.
It has been a long trip since this all started. Who knows what the futre trend will be, but one thing is certain. Viruses and other malware will still be around.
