INTRODUCTION:

Computer viruses are the software programs which are intended and established to interfere with normal computer operations and spreading from one computer to another without the machinist’s knowledge. Computer viruses drop in the family of malicious programs which are else called malware. Malware also includes rootkits, spyware, worms, Trojan horses and fraudulent adware. This review paper objectives is to find the reasons which leads the virus attacks among personal computer users. In today’s world the use of computers are increasing day by day. So that, the users of personal computer need to have the virus protection mechanisms to face the problem of computer virus in daily life. Computer viruses affects computers very seriously. It is important to analyze the actions that a virus perform in one’s system and also the other activities which are possible to occur. This helps in protecting our PC with requiring security mechanisms to safeguard the secure information. The purpose of this review paper is to introduce to the reader the extortions that the computer viruses can generate and provide guidelines on how individuals can protect themselves against these viruses. Many of the computer viruses are intended to self-replicate and self-install over a very short period of time and comes with specific instructions to destroy and can affect the applications and programs very rapidly. Identifying the symptoms of a computer virus can support to fruitfully remove it from the infected computer as quickly as possible. After identification there are preventive solutions which are put forwarded to stop these viruses from spreading in computers.

Virus :-

A virus is a piece of software that can “infect” other programs by modifying them; the modification includes a copy of the virus program, which can go on to infect other programs.[1] A virus can do anything that other programs do. The only difference is that it attaches itself to another program and executes secretly when the host program is run.[2] Once a virus is executing, it can perform any function, such as erasing files and programs. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. [3][4][5]

Worm :-

A worm simply makes copies of itself over and over again for the purpose of exhausting available system resources. A worm can target both hard drive space and processor cycles.

v During its lifetime, a typical virus goes through the following four phases:

Figure 1 : Phases of Virus

Ø Dormant phase :- The virus is indolent. It will ultimately be generated by some event. The virus will wait until a “trigger” gives it the command to execute. For example - a date, the existence of alternative program or file, or the capability of the disk more than some limit. Not all viruses have this phase.

Ø Propagation phase :- The virus residences an duplicate copy of itself into other programs or into assured system areas on the disk. Each infected program will now hold a copy of the virus, which will itself enter a propagation phase.

Ø Triggering phase :- The virus is activated to perform the function for which it was intended. As with the dormant phase, the triggering phase can be caused by a variety of system events, including a count of the number of times that this copy of the virus has made copies of itself.

Ø Execution phase :- The function is performed. The function may be harmless , such as a message on the screen, or damaging, such as the destruction of programs and data files.

Types of viruses :-

v The major types of viruses are as follows ::

Ø Parasitic Viruses : The traditional and still most common form of virus is Parasitic virus. A parasitic virus attaches itself to executable files and replicates, when the infected program is executed, by finding other executable files to infect.

Ø Memory-Resident virus : Lodges in main memory as part of a resident system program. From that point on, the virus infects every program that executes.[6]

Ø Non-resident virus : This type of virus executes itself and terminated or destroyed after specific time.

Ø Boot sector virus : Infects a master boot record or boot record and spreads when a system is booted from the disk containing the virus.[7]

Ø Overwriting virus : This type of virus overwrites the code with its own code, but do not change the size of the file.[8][9]

Ø Stealth virus : A form of virus openly designed to hide itself from detection by antivirus software. Stealth virus destroys or alters programs and data.[10]

Ø Macro virus : These viruses are not executable, it affects Microsoft word like documents.[11] Macro viruses are easily spread. A very common method is by electronic mail. The virus is platform independent. Any hardware platform and operating system that supports word can be infected

Ø Polymorphic virus : A virus that mutates with every infection, making detection by the “Signature” of the virus is impossible.

Ø Metamorphic virus : As with a polymorphic virus, a metamorphic virus mutates with every infection. The difference is that a metamorphic virus rewrites itself completely at each iteration, increasing the difficulty of detection. Metamorphic viruses change their behaviour as well as their appearance.

Ø Companion virus : This is the virus which creates a new program instead of modifying an existing file.

Ø Email viruses : Virus gets executed when email attachment is open by recipient. The email-virus sends itself to everyone on the mailing list in the user’s e-mail package. The virus does local damage.

General Symptoms of viruses :

The following are some of the symptoms of virus infection in your computer system.

§ Some system files may be lost or you receive error messages on lost files.

§ The computer functions as expected but at other times, it stops responding.

§ The operating systems may not start although you may not have done any installations or modified any programs.

§ The computer takes longer than expected to run an application

§ The user may receive out-of-memory error messages even when the system has adequate Random Access Memory (RAM).

§ When new images appear on the desktop that you did not create or put there.

§ Whenever there are some weird sounds which are unanticipated.

§ A program disappears from the computer although you did not remove the program.

§ The computer may keep restarting unpredictably.

§ Computer programs may stop acting in response frequently.

§ Computer hard disk partitions disappear.

§ The computer may also smash.

§ The computer may come to a halt when you try to use Microsoft Office objects.

§ Whenever you cannot start or run the Windows Task Manager.

Figure 2: Symptoms recognized when virus infection

§ When antivirus software identifies the presence of a computer virus.

§ Disk drives and disks may be unreachable to users.

§ There is a twofold extension on documents you recently opened such as. doc.exe

§ An antivirus program is deactivated for no reason. Additionally, the antivirus program cannot be restarted.

§ Viruses corrupt data and makes changes to the data in applications.[12]

Figure 3 : Reason for virus attack

Solutions:

The ideal solution to the threat of viruses is prevention: The next best approach is to be able to do the following:

a. Detection : Once the infection has occurred, determine that it has occurred and locate the virus.

b. Identification : Once detection has been achieved, Identify the specific virus that has attacked.

c. Removal : Once the specific virus has been identified, it is necessary to remove all traces of the virus and restore the affected file to its original state with the help of anti-virus.[13]

Preventive mechanisms for virus attacks / Suggestions :

Following are some preventive mechanisms to safeguard the computer system-

ü Keep the operating system updated and ensure that the operating system (OS) is up-to-date.

ü Keep Anti-Virus software installed on your system and update it regularly.

ü Make sure that your software has the latest to fix new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Further make sure the antivirus program has the capability to scan e-mail and files as they are downloaded from the Internet and run full disk scans periodically.

ü Install a firewall and keep it enable specially when the computer is connected with the internet.

ü Be careful about opening binary files and Word/Excel documents from unknown or doubtful sources.

ü Do regular backups. Some viruses and Trojan horse programs will erase or corrupt files on your hard drive, and a recent backup may be the only way to recover your data.

ü Be extremely careful about accepting programs or other files during on-line chat sessions this seems to be one of the more common means that people wind up with virus or Trojan horse problems.[14]

ü Permit only approved software to run on your institution so that unaccepted programs are not run. This involves revoking installation privileges from users so that they may not install any programs.

ü Registering to an alert service that can caution you about new viruses and offer their identities that will facilitate your anti-virus software to notice and deter them.

ü Formatting the computer’s hard drive is a harder option of removing viruses this involves reinstalling the operating system and all programs from original media.

Figure 4 : Best Mechanisms for Virus Attacks

CONCLUSION :

This review helps personal computer users to protect their computers from the virus attacks. The simple endorsement for this review is the virus detection and virus contrivances. It is the easiest and least expensive methods for the virus attack by participating such as keep our firewall and antivirus updated, avoid unsafe internet surfing like visiting suspicious websites, surfing on the cracked websites and downloading from insecure websites, don’t open the junk files and spam mail, delete suspicious e-mails instantly. The users should follow the safety measures very carefully so that their personal computers does not have distress about virus attacks.

REFERENCES :-

1. Fred cohen, The Foundation for Computer Integrity Research, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 USA, “Computer Viruses Theory and Experiments”

2. R.Grimes, Malicious Mobile code: virus protection for windows, O’Reilly and Associates , Sebastopol, CA, 2001

3. Roshan Kumar, Smita Dey, “Study of Computer Virus Transmission”, International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, Volume 6 Issue 1, February-2019

4. F-secure Corporation, “Computer Viruses-from an annoyance to a Serious Threat”

5. Joseph Wen HA, Internet Computer Virus Protection Policy, Journal of Information Management and Computer Security, MCB University Press. ISSN- 0968-5227

6. K.Lai, D.Wren, T.Rowling, Consumer Antivirus Performance Benchmarks

7. Jeffrey kephart, Gregory Sorkin, david chess, stree white scientific American, “fighting Computer Viruses”

8. Shivaji Bahukhandi, Sandeep Singh Rana, “Introduction and History of Computer Viruses”, International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, Volume 7, issue 12, December-2016

9. C.Nachenberg,’Computer Parasitology’, Proceedings of the Ninth International Virus Bulletin Conference, 1999.p.7

10. Dr.Prof. Milind Joshi, Bhaskar Patil, “Computer virus: Their Problems and Major attacks in Real Life”, International Journal of P2P Network Trends and Technology, Volume 3 Issue 4-May 2013

11. S.S.Oyelere, L.S.Oyelere, “User’s perception of the effects of viruses on computer syatems-an empirical research”, African Journal of Computing and ICT, Volume 8, march-2015

12. Erick K. Rotich, Metto Kimutai S, Samoei K. Daniel, and Lily Siele, “Trends in Computer Viruses: A review”, Global Journal of Engineering Design and Technology, Volume.3(3):9-11 (May-June, 2014)

13. J.W. Rittiaghouse and William M.Hancok- Elseviers, “Cyber Security Operations Handbook”

14. The Impact of Computer Virus Attacks and Its Preventive Mechanisms among Personal Computer (PC) Users, Proceedings of the Third International Symposium, SEUSL: 6-7 July 2013, Oluvil, Sri Lanka

Received on 25.11.2021 Accepted on 10.12.2021

Int. J. Tech. 2021; 11(2):78-82.

DOI: 10.52711/2231-3915.2021.00011