Q: (Initially posted June 28, 2004) FROM STUDENT MEMBER JESSICA L. IN IL
A couple of days ago, I was talking to a friend about computer viruses and bugs, and he told me that they are created by people. I was just curious why people would bother to make such things and how do the they spread?

June 29, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON IN IL
Jessica,
Very good question! I ask myself that myself. What is in it for them? I did a
search for "computer viruses" on google and found this website:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm

At the top of the page, you have a table of contents. You can either scroll
down to what you want to read and click on it. Or you can page through the
pages, by reading down to the "Next" link.

It will tell you how they work, what kinds of viruses are out there (worms,
email, trojan horses and viruses), how to prevent them, and finally the origins
of viruses and why people do it.

Basically, the article says that people create viruses because they just want to
see if they can, want to SAY they can, and like to see other people have
problems. Silly reasons if you ask me.

Here is an important bit of information from the website. It tells you HOW to
prevent it from happening to you:
"An Ounce of Prevention
You can protect yourself against viruses with a few simple steps:
If you are truly worried about traditional (as opposed to e-mail) viruses, you
should be running a more secure operating system like UNIX. You never hear about
viruses on these operating systems because the security features keep viruses
(and unwanted human visitors) away from your hard disk.

If you are using an unsecured operating system, then buying virus protection
software is a nice safeguard.

If you simply avoid programs from unknown sources (like the Internet), and
instead stick with commercial software purchased on CDs, you eliminate almost
all of the risk from traditional viruses. In addition, you should disable floppy
disk booting -- most computers now allow you to do this, and that will eliminate
the risk of a boot sector virus coming in from a floppy disk accidentally left
in the drive.

You should make sure that Macro Virus Protection is enabled in all Microsoft
applications, and you should NEVER run macros in a document unless you know what
they do. There is seldom a good reason to add macros to a document, so avoiding
all macros is a great policy.

You should never double-click on an attachment that contains an executable that
arrives as an e-mail attachment. Attachments that come in as Word files (.DOC),
spreadsheets (.XLS), images (.GIF and .JPG), etc., are data files and they can
do no damage (noting the macro virus problem in Word and Excel documents
mentioned above). A file with an extension like EXE, COM or VBS is an
executable, and an executable can do any sort of damage it wants. Once you run
it, you have given it permission to do anything on your machine. The only
defense is to never run executables that arrive via e-mail. "
Thanks for the question, Jessica.
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A: FROM MENTOR LORI KANE IN MA
It's a bit hard to understand why people would write virsuses because the
writers don't gain financially, rarely acheive fame, and don't usually
target specific people. People often write viruses just to see if they can
(I haven't done it, but it is apparently fairly easy) and to see how far
it can travel. It probably also gives them a special feeling of power if
they are able to wreak havoc on computer systems.

A virus can spread across computers and networks by making copies of
itself, usually without the user knowing. They can come from files
downloaded from the Internet, e-mail attachments, and documents and
spreadsheets that contain macros.

The best way to protect yourself is to never download a program or open an
e-mail attachment unless your know who the sender or writer of the program
is. Also, install virus scanning software on your computer and check for
updates frequently.