Computer Viruses and Known Disinfectants

            Computer Viruses and Known Disinfectants.
             Computer viruses in the world of computing today are a well known threat.
             A virus is a program written with intent cause damage to data held on a computer.
             A virus searches for and attaches itself to a host program. When run the virus is duplicated and spread thoughout the system.
             The affects of a virus are varied some can destroy files on the system some can cause the system to behave erratically or even make the system stop functioning altogether.
             They have the potential to infect any computer system.
             The introduction of the computer virus has caused the need for anti-virus software to prevent infection.
             Many companies have been formed to write software to protect a computer from viruses. (symantec, sophus, mcafee).
             How did viruses originate?.
             The idea of a computer virus was first conceived in 1949 by Jon von Neumann.
             He found that computer programs had the ability to self-replicate.
             Von Neumann's theory was not put into practice until the 1950's when employees at Bell Labs created a game called "core wars".
             In this game programmers used the principal of a virus to each write a program and put them against each other. The program replicated most in memory was the winner.
             This game showed the potential for a computer virus.
             The first reported case of a virus designed to cause damage to a computer system was not until 1986.
             The 'Pakistani Brain' virus written by two programmers Amjad and Basit Farooq Alvi caused widespread damage to many systems.
             It infected any computer using illegal copies of their software. It wrote over the boot sector of the hard disk making the system unable to start.
             Since this initial 'outbreak' many programmers saw this idea of being able to shut off several computers with one program appealing and in the following ten years hundreds of computer viruses were written causing widespread damage.
             The most targeted computers were large company systems storing important data on them.