While anti-virus protection software gets more technologically sophisticated to stay ahead of malicious virus codes, it’s that basic common sense among people that may just be the most effective cure to avoid computer viruses from spreading and infecting computers worldwide.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, a British anti-virus protection company, maintains that most viruses don’t actually exploit the vulnerability in software, but rather the "bug" in people’s brains. He refers to the careless habit of many people to open unsolicited attachments in their e-mails.
"The bug in people’s brain which makes them feel compelled to double click on all e-mails they get is what we need to patch. If we do that, that would solve most of the virus problems," Cluley tells NetWorks.
Cluley says cunning virus writers take advantage of this bug in users by usually offering picture attachments of beautiful and sexy female celebrities or by using interesting subject lines as exemplified by the "I LOVE YOU" virus.
The Love Bug spread rapidly and infected users worldwide not because it was technically sophisticated but because of its psychology.
"If I receive from my hairy boss an e-mail with ‘I LOVE YOU’ in the subject line, it must be a joke so I’d click on it. If I receive that from the cute girl in the accounts department, I’ll open it thinking she sent me a love note. So that’s what was clever about the Love Bug. The writer got lucky, but we’ve seen other viruses that are technically more advanced and should work better but they were not lucky to spread," Cluley said.
After the Love Bug, virus writers became bent on using any female celebrity to spread viruses, hoping to appeal to "many sad men out there who would click on the attachments," notes Cluley.
The bug in people, Cluley says, also makes them forget about viruses so they will let their guard down until their computers are infected again. He is not that confident about people’s behavior really changing that much when it comes to this thing, but he still issues this warning: "Be wary of unsolicited attachments. Use your brain. Think with your head not with your trouser when it comes to e-mail and you will be protected against most viruses."
To stop viruses before it even reach users’ e-mail, Sophos puts protection in the e-mail gateway system, which will not only scan for the known viruses but also look for and bar the entry of other dangerous content such as executable codes. He explains that of the top 10 viruses last year, nine of them were Windows 32 executable worms or .exe files coming in via e-mails.
"Microsoft and Apache systems have security vulnerabilities. But I think in some ways it’s better to invest in open systems because there’s more peer control and review of what the software is like. We are seeing more viruses now for open systems, but in the big scheme of things, more are still being written for Windows 32," Cluley says.
Meanwhile, Cluley says they are already seeing viruses written in C# programming language for Microsoft’s .NET, written by a certain "Gigabyte," who seems to be the only female virus writer around.
"I think any new OS initiative from Microsoft generates a lot of interest from the virus writers. There’s always the rush to write the first virus for Windows 95, 98, NT and so on and so forth. Undoubtedly, we will see more being written for .NET as it comes along but it should not be difficult for us to protect against them using traditional methods," he says.
Cluley also bursts users’ ballooning concern over the security of mobile phones and WiFi systems. At the moment, there is no real way to infect mobile phones as virus writers still don’t see a standardized platform emerging to write virus on. Cluley says it will take a while for that to happen and for mobile phones to become sophisticated such that they can harbor computer viruses.
"The worst that viruses can do at the moment is send text messages to mobile phones but, of course, that’s just like getting spam on your e-mail; you just delete it," he adds.
WiFi systems, which are apparently poor in security, are also no different from wired systems in terms of vulnerability. According to Cluley, whether you have a wired or wireless link, it’s irrelevant to the virus because it will just copy itself in order to work.
"The thing about wireless technology is it’s just supposed to work as if there’s a wire there. It’s the same with virus and anti-virus software. Things work thinking there is a wire there and acts as if there were. So it’s just as easy to update and protect wireless systems as those connected technologies on your desk."
Sophos also ended 2002 with the following list of the most frequently occurring viruses and hoaxes:
= W32/Bugbear-A ONE (Bugbear worm)
= W32/Klez-H (Klez variant)
= Troj/Tubmo-A (Tubmo Trojan)
= W32/Klez-G (Klez variant)
= W32/Opaserv-G (Opaserv variant)
= W32/Nimda-D (Nimda variant)
= W32/Opaserv-A (Opaserv variant)
= W32/Opaserv-F (Opaserv variant)
= W32/Braid-A (Braid worm)
= W32/Elkern-C (Elkern)