Network Tutorial, Fifth Edition
This text is written for those trying to get up to speed or stay current with the complex challenges of designing, constructing, maintaining, upgrading, and managing the network infrastructure.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Network Tutorial, Fifth Edition
The Virus Threat
By most accounts, in October 1988, only three DOS computer viruses were known. By October 1991, McAfee Associates identified some 900 computer virus strains. At the 18th Computer Security Institute Conference, Scott Charney from the U.S. Justice Department indicated that the government expected to see an additional 600 viruses and mutant strains introduced during 1992.
Peter Tippett, president of Certus, reported a new virus was discovered about every six days in January 1990; by June 1990, a new virus was discovered about every four days; and in September, 1990, one was found every three days. According to Charney's prediction, we would have discovered 1.6 new viruses daily in 1992.
The Cost Of A Virus
Although many viruses are labeled benign (more annoying than actually causing damage to the system or data), a virus usually causes at least some inconvenience, some loss of system-access time and, at the worst, loss of data.
Recent virus cleanup figures at a large corporation found an average of one hour of technician time was required to locate and remove a virus from each computer. Data from Certus support staff suggests that a reasonable figure for direct technician time to resolve a disastrous computer virus is approximately $250 per computer or network workstation.
What Is A Virus?
A virus is a program that has the ability to reproduce by modifying other programs to include a copy of itself. It may contain destructive code that moves into multiple programs, data files, or devices on...
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