Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/private/mpc93mar.zip/VIRUS.DAT

Text File | 1993-02-12 | 4KB | 63 lines

                             Are Viruses Dead?
                             By Fred Kolbrener
                           Pentagon PC User Group

     Last year at this time, there was a lot of hoopla in the press about
     the impending crisis of the Michelangelo virus which was going to
     attack all the computers in the world on March 6, 1992.  As March 6,
     1993, approaches, it has been strangely silent about viruses.  Does
     this mean that they are dead?  Has a miracle cure been found?  The
     answer lies somewhere in between.

     First, the Michelangelo scare hyped by the press last year did not do
     the damage that was predicted.  That fact may have been due to the
     fuss that was raised and the resultant awareness of the  part of
     users in the computing world to the potential for damage and their
     subsequent movement to "protect" their systems with anti-virus
     programs.  Clearly, the threat was oversold, but in retrospect, it
     probably served a good purpose to wake up computer users to the need
     for control of their computers, their diskettes; and the need for
     user education.

     I recently received a call from a member whose organization had just
     been put on a LAN and had several instances of the Michelangelo
     virus on machines.  My answer to the question of whether there is a
     new Michelangelo virus out there was essentially that it never left
     and probably, they were experiencing the failure of the users and
     management to completely screen ALL their floppy disks last year when
     the big scare was on.

     This just points out a few things.  First, viruses are not dead!
     There will always be some individuals who write viruses for their
     enjoyment, the technological challenge, or to punish users who pirate
     software.  Second, user education and awareness is still necessary.
     Just because the scare of 1992 turned out to be a fizzle does not
     negate our responsibility to be educated users. Third, if you are
     attacked with a virus, there is no shortcut to a full cure. Not only
     must your hard disk be cleaned, but also you MUST screen EVERY
     diskette in your organization.  Otherwise, sooner or later, the
     conditions will be right to be reinfected with the same virus.

     There must be at least 30 programs out in the commercial market for
     virus protection, detection, or cleaning.  We have been reviewing
     some of them in this newsletter as space and article availability
     permit.  The movement in the anti-virus field is as previously
     reported in this column from 'detection' of virus strings, to
     detection of virus activities. [e.g.  Programs do not routinely write
     to the boot sector of disks and any program that does is immediately
     suspect as a virus.  Obviously, not all programs fit this description
     since the FORMAT command for one, has to rewrite the boot sector to
     format a diskette.]

      Whatever you do for virus protection, the key is consistency. You
      just can't stop doing what you started to do last year hoping you
      will not ever see another virus.  DO use an anti-virus program.
      DON'T boot off from unknown floppy disks. DO seek competent
      assistance if you are attacked by a virus. DO educate all your users
      of the danger of bringing in diskettes from unknown sources. DO
      assist your users to disinfect their own machines (and diskettes)
      at home if they are infected. DO  continue to practice "safe HEX"
      and you'll probably do all right.