Since the Michelangelo virus scare in the US, warnings about malicious computer code are still ridiculed by many global PC users as media propaganda to fuel the demand for `anti-virus and anti-vandal` software.
On 6 March, 1992, only 10 000 of the forecasted five million infected PCs went down, resulting in inherent damage to the gains in awareness for sensible virus and vandal protection strategies.
However, for Internet-driven businesses in South Africa that have experienced damage to their core of financial and intellectual property, computer viruses and vandals are very much a reality. A few hours of down time as a result of corrupted files implies missed deadlines and loss of revenue.
"With over 19 000 viruses in existence now, and around 350 to 400 new ones appearing every month, viruses and vandals are not likely to just go away. Like technology, virus writing has also evolved and matured," says Brett Myroff, CEO of eSafe Technologies SA.
With regards to the desktop operating systems being used in most South African businesses today, most viruses are written to take advantage of features of 32-bit operating systems and are becoming increasingly problematic.
"A large part of future malicious virus writing lies with MicrosoftWindows 95/98 operating systems. More and more MS Word and Excel documents are being shared and modified online via the Internet and are merely seen by many users as data, rather than documents. These MS files contain a macro language that is executed when you load a file into the application on any platform, hence the term macro virus," says Myroff.
Others, such as polymorphic viruses go undetected through traditional anti-virus scanners, and are becoming more and more complex as virus authors learn the techniques to send false alarms, making the detection of a virus very difficult.
As Windows become more popular, people are increasingly reluctant to run virus scanners under the traditional DOS platform, making the operating system increasingly vulnerable.
To combat virus and vandal threats, experts are constantly researching the behaviour of specific malicious code and the way enterprises use technology to identify the environments that viruses and vandals need to survive and proliferate, forming the basis of malicious code management strategy.
"As virus scanners grow larger and more complex to keep up with the latest developments in virus writing, anti-virus and anti-vandal software products developed for the future must be able to respond quickly and effectively across all platforms," says Myroff.
Viruses and vandals will be with us forever. Although, it isn`t exactly as dramatic and dangerous as the Michelangelo made it out to be. But, as long as people have problems with computers, there will be people who can offer cost-effective solutions to the virus threat.
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