PROJECT REPORT

ON
COMPUTER VIRUSES

SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF 100 HOURS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

TRAINING PROGRAMME

(ICITSS)

CONDUCTED BY,

INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA

ALAPPUZHA

SUBMITTED BY

ALAN GEORGE

SRO 0542692

UNDER GUIDANCE OF

Mrs. Nandu Das

Mrs. Sabitha.S

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my humble gratitude to the Almighty God for the constant help and providence with
which he has accompanied me.

I would like to take up the opportunity to express my profound gratitude towards everyone who
generously gave their time, energy and resources in order to contribute to my success.
In addition, I address my special thanks to our faculty Mrs.Nandu Das, Mrs.Sabitha.S especially
for their commitments to guide me throughout the research.

I am extremely grateful to the ICAI Alappuzha branch, the chairman CA Vasudevan Potti.N the
faculty members and staff members for providing the facilities.
Last but not the least; I thank my batch mates for their valuable support & encouragement.

Alan George

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 CONTENTS

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 Introduction

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a
computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to
refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and
spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus
can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable
code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because
a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable
medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses can
increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files
on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another
computer. As stated above, the term "computer virus" is sometimes used
as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, even those that do
not have the reproductive ability. Malware includes computer viruses,
computer worms, Trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest
adware and other malicious and unwanted software, including true
viruses. Viruses are sometimes confused with worms and Trojan horses,
which are technically different. A worm can exploit security
vulnerabilities to spread itself automatically to other computers through
networks, while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but
hides malicious functions. Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may
harm a computer system's data or performance. Some viruses and other
malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are

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surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some
viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves.

Types Of Viruses
Not all computer viruses behave, replicate, or infect the same way.
There are several different categories of viruses and malware. Below I
list and discuss some of the most common types of computer viruses.
Trojan Horse: A trojan horse program has the appearance of having a
useful and desired function. While it may advertise its activity after
launching, this information is not apparent to the user beforehand.
Secretly the program performs other, undesired functions. A Trojan
Horse neither replicates nor copies itself, but causes damage or
compromises the security of the computer. A Trojan Horse must be sent
by someone or carried by another program and may arrive in the form of
a joke program or software of some sort. The malicious functionality of
a Trojan Horse may be anything undesirable for a computer user,
including data destruction or compromising a system by providing a
means for another computer to gain access, thus bypassing normal
access controls. Worms: A worm is a program that makes and facilitates
the distribution of copies of itself; for example, from one disk drive to
another, or by copying itself using email or another transport
mechanism. The worm may do damage and compromise the security of
the computer. It may arrive via exploitation of a system vulnerability or
by clicking on an infected e-mail.

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Bootsector Virus: A virus which attaches itself to the first part of the
hard disk that is read by the computer upon bootup. These are normally
spread by floppy disks. Macro Virus: Macro viruses are viruses that use
another application's macro programming language to distribute
themselves. They infect documents such as MS Word or MS Excel and
are typically spread to other similar documents. Memory Resident
Viruses: Memory Resident Viruses reside in a computers volitale
memory (RAM). They are initiated from a virus which runs on the
computer and they stay in memory after it's initiating program closes.

Rootkit Virus:
A rootkit virus is an undetectable virus which attempts to allow
someone to gain control of a computer system. The term rootkit comes
from the linux administrator root user. These viruses are usually
installed by trojans and are normally disguised as operating system files.

Antivirus software

Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and

remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses,
computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware. This page talks
about the software used for the prevention and removal of such
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threats, rather than computer security implemented by software
methods. A variety of strategies are typically employed.
Signaturebased detection involves searching for known patterns of
data within executable code. However, it is possible for a computer
to be infected with new malware for which no signature is yet
known. To counter such so-called zero-day threats, heuristics can be
used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can
identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for
known malicious code, or slight variations of such code, in files.
Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do by

running it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it

performs any malicious actions.

Identification methods

There are several methods which antivirus software can use to

identify malware. Signature based detection is the most common
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method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software
compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures.
Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire
file is searched, not just as a whole, but also in pieces. Heuristic-
based detection, like malicious activity detection, can be used to
identify unknown viruses.

File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves

executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what
actions the program performs. Depending on the actions logged, the
antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not
and then carry out the appropriate disinfection actions.

What harmful things could computer viruses do?

Slow down email: Viruses that spread by email, such as Sobig,

can generate so much email traffic that servers slow down or crash.
Even if this doesn't happen, companies may react to the risk by
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shutting down servers anyway. Steal confidential data: The
Bugbear-D worm records the user's keystrokes, including
passwords, and gives the virus writer access to them.

Let other users hijack your computer: Some viruses place

"backdoor Trojans" on the computer, allowing the virus

writer to connect to your computer and use it for their own purposes.

Corrupt data: The Compatable virus makes changes to the data in

Excel spreadsheets.

Delete data: The Sircam worm may attempt to delete or overwrite

the hard disk on a certain day. Disable hardware: CIH, also known
as Chernobyl, attempts to overwrite the BIOS chip on April 26,
making the computer unusable. Play pranks: The Netsky-D worm
made computers beep sporadically for several hours one morning.
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Damage your credibility: If a virus forwards itself from your
computer to your customers and business partners, they may refuse
to do business with you, or demand compensation.

What are the harmful effects of computer virus/others virus?

It can slow down your computer. It might corrupt your system files.

It might make some programs faulty or corrupt.

It might damage your boot sector creating problems when you boot
into the windows.

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 it might steal important information from your computer and send
to some other person.

It might change the power ratings of your computer and could blast
the system.

It might give you sleepless nights and nightmares if you are able to
sleep.

You might wake up in bad mood and that will affect your family
and your society.

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 Plus it undermines the faith of the people over the law and order
situation.

HOW VIRUSES SPREAD?

There are many ways to spread viruses... Computer viruses, or

malicious sections of code intended to damage a computer system,
spread in several ways. True viruses are self-replicating, meaning
that there is a piece of code causing them to copy and distribute
themselves. By: Posing as something useful (known as a Trojan
horse) ie a download, a gift from a friend, etc. Current scam is a 'gift
card' or an 'ecard' email that tries to run a malicious script when
opened. Because you gave the computer the command to open the
file, the virus has an easy path in. By: Emailing itself - will search
for anything fitting an email address xyz.com and then send itself
there. By: Infecting a 'clean' file without the owner's knowledge -
lots of viruses can be spread this way, by people downloading files
from safe sources that have been hacked by people intent on
spreading viruses. By: Using networks - if one computer on a Local
Area network or

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wireless network is infected, this type of virus will infect every
computer on that network if not blocked by a suitable firewall.

By: Using removable media - usually, disks, USB drives, external

hard drives, floppies, CDs etc. are not checked by the virus scanner
when they are inserted, so a virus hiding on one can get onto the
computer unquestioned. Most viruses are spread by 'freaks' or
people who hack computers and write viruses because they are
essentially twisted people who enjoy causing damage. Some are
more targeted, ie stealing information or money, or destroying
particular programs. All of them have the potential to do great
damage, and there are more ways to spread them than mentioned
above.

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 There are lots of viruses in the world and new viruses are coming up every
day. There are new anti-virus programs and techniques developed too. It is
good to be aware of viruses and other malware and it is cheaper to protect
you environment from them rather then being sorry.

There might be a virus in your computer if it starts acting differently. There is

no reason to panic if the computer virus is found.

It is good to be a little suspicious of malware when you surf in the Internet and
download files. Some files that look interesting might hide a malware.

A computer virus is a program that reproduces itself and its mission is to spread
out. Most viruses are harmless and some viruses might cause random damage
to data files.

A trojan horse is not a virus because it doesn't reproduce. The trojan horses are
usually masked so that they look interesting. There are trojan horses that steal
passwords and formats hard disks.

Marco viruses spread from applications which use macros. Macro viruses
spreads fast because people share so much data, email documents and use the
Internet to get documents. Macros are also very easy to write.

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 Some people want to experiment how to write viruses and test their
programming talent. At the same time they do not understand about the
consequences for other people or they simply do not care.

Viruses mission is to hop from program to other and this can happen via floppy
disks, Internet FTP sites, newsgroups and via email attachments. Viruses are
mostly written for PC-computers and DOS environments.

Viruses are not any more something that just programmers and computer
specialist have to deal with. Today everyday users have to deal with viruses.

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Types Of Viruses

Not all computer viruses behave, replicate, or infect the same way. There are several different
categories of viruses and malware. Below I list and discuss some of the most common types of
computer viruses. Trojan Horse: A trojan horse program has the appearance of having a useful
and desired function. While it may advertise its activity after launching, this information is not
apparent to the user beforehand. Secretly the program performs other, undesired functions. A
Trojan Horse neither replicates nor copies itself, but causes damage or compromises the security
of the computer. A Trojan Horse must be sent by someone or carried by another program and
may arrive in the form of a joke program or software of some sort. The malicious functionality of
a Trojan Horse may be anything undesirable for a computer user, including data destruction or
compromising a system by providing a means for another computer to gain access, thus
bypassing normal access controls. Worms: A worm is a program that makes and facilitates the
distribution of copies of itself; for example, from one disk drive to another, or by copying itself
using email or another transport mechanism. The worm may do damage and compromise the
security of the computer. It may arrive via exploitation of a system vulnerability or by clicking
on an infected e-mail.

Bootsector Virus: A virus which attaches itself to the first part of the hard disk that is read by the
computer upon bootup. These are normally spread by floppy disks. Macro Virus: Macro viruses
are viruses that use another application's macro programming language to distribute themselves.
They infect documents such as MS Word or MS Excel and are typically spread to other similar
documents. Memory Resident Viruses: Memory Resident Viruses reside in a computers volitale
memory (RAM). They are initiated from a virus which runs on the computer and they stay in
memory after it's initiating program closes.

Rootkit Virus:

A rootkit virus is an undetectable virus which attempts to allow someone to gain control of a
computer system. The term rootkit comes from the linux administrator root user. These viruses
are usually installed by trojans and are normally disguised as operating system files.

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