hello guys can you tell me why is it important to study about computer viruses???
because others have already created books and etc..
but i dont actually get the point?

Well, it's an interesting subject.

Besides that, banning all research on computer viruses isn't going to stop them.

Researching possible attack vectors helps programmers write more secure software.

Just because it's not ethical doesn't mean we (the "good guys") shouldn't know how they work. Best way to catch a crook is to think like one, they always say.

studying viruses can teach you things about a system you may never have known. Often viruses and other malicious code takes advantage of undocumented code in an operating system's core, showing the analyzer things that are possible, that may have previously been unknown.

While that is extremely general, when dealing with system security, it is important to understand how a virus compromises a system, in order to create an anti-virus or prevent future attacks. Analyzing other's code is a great way to learn things and there are none craftier than those writing viruses. Giving you a view into their head without meeting them.

Sadly I think most anti-virus programs work by profiling, which is exactly why most of them are pretty much garbage.

Once you're infected with a virus it's kind of "too little too late".

I could just not know very much about it though.

I know this might get me flamed, but I'm kinda interested of learning how virus works actually. not to create virus, just for additional knowledge. is there any place where I can learn about this security, virus etc stuff?

1) Think of a question
2) Go to Google.com
3) Type in question
4) Click 'Google Search'
5) Read
6) Profit!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=h...amp;btnG=Search

This post has been edited by Tom9729: 28 Jul, 2008 - 09:03 AM

Computer viruses are actually VERY interesting. First off learning about computer viruses will teach you a great deal about how to deal with viruses. So if you are interested in working in computer security then learning about how malicious software works is a must.

Computer viruses viewed strictly as "self replicating processes" are also incredibly interesting. Here we generally don't consider the malicious aspect of the code, and simply view these processes as little cellular processes. For example a common type of virus is the "spy" -- a program that spreads to a foreign computer and collects information. -- this has been used to make "network search bots" (which are really viruses).

Virus research is also an extension of concurrent programming. Programs that spawn threads to deal with large data processing.

There are a great number of interesting topics that unfortunately fall under "virus research" but have nothing to do with malicious activities.

This post has been edited by NickDMax: 28 Jul, 2008 - 01:37 PM

this is realty kind a out of topic but what are related literatures that i can get on studying computer viruses ?

Is pretty crazy the lengths people go to to build virus' - just look at the storm botnet, 1000's of pc at the tips of the owners fingers...even took the time to engineer a p2p control infrastructure...

Yeah but you're forgetting that:

• That would be an incredible project to work on, ethics aside.
• They're still at large.
• They're now selling it off for large sums of money.

So I think the time they took to build it is worth the end result.

I'm not sure I'd classify a botnet as a virus. To count as a virus, I'd require the code to act alone, with no central authority. Only then can it be free to grow, mutate, evolve...

Most of what we consider viruses are really just trojans, a far stupider beast. Or the result of some direct attack via exploit.

Functionally, a bot or zombie box is just some net accessible machine that unwittingly runs some kind of server. The client is the controller of the botnet and essentially just makes server requests. The server is usually also the client and around it goes.

These things are interesting and not all that complicated. The complexity comes when you wish to do mischief and not get caught. Having simple little utility bots on an enterprise network can do some useful things. If you like, you can call such things web services.