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Data Encryption: Rx for Computer Viruses
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15202 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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4 / 1989 |
2,918 Words |
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Susan Brandeis Murray
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On November 2 of last year, giant computer systems connected to the global network known as Internet were infiltrated by what many people had believed a menace to the personal computer alone: an elusive computer virus. The mainframes ground to a halt; researchers lost valuable data; corporate communication lines fell silent while machines were shut down and cleansed of the intruder; and computer scientists spent an agonizing night chasing the 99-line program, which a Cornell University student had set loose in the system. The virus invaded up to 6,000 computers.
System operators on the 50,000-machine network raced to control the damage. Their messages tell the story: "How far has it spread? What are its characteristics? Will it attack this system? Does anyone have a cure?" One computer-security expert called the scene a war zone.
An electronic virus attacks a computer in much the same way its organic namesake invades a cell. Just as many disease-causing viruses enter the nucleus of a bacterium and commandeer its genetic machinery, a computer virus enters a program, attaches itself, and manipulates the computer's operating system. The operating system is much like a city's public works department. It removes garbage files, sets up areas for new construction, and generally directs traffic--the flow of myriad commands and data--through the computer's processor and strong media. Both types of virus are programmed to replicate themselves and to spread to uninfected cells--or software programs. Both may lie dormant until a signal from an internal clock switches them on. Just as biological agents are transmitted through human contact, electronic viruses spread through software contact--via telephone lines or manual exchange of computer files. An infection usually remains undetected until symptoms appear. Both can be pernicious.
"Organisms," the progenitors of modern computer viruses, were created in the basement of AT&T Bell Laboratories in the late 1950s when computers were single, mammoth machines. The concept of self-replicating programs was introduced by John von Neumann in 1949--several years before the first commercial electronic computer--in a seminal paper titled Theory and Organization of Complicated Automata. AT&T scientists brought von Neumann's ideas to fruition in designing Core Wars, a program that held other combative programs in special section, or core, of memory. The game was a simple Darwinian exercise in which only the fittest programs survived. Two players would write self-replicating programs, or organisms, which competed to occupy as much core memory as possible, while destroying the opponent's programs. Whoever had more programs left at the end of the game was declared the winner.
The game's creators knew of the destructive potential such a self-replicating program held, and they had a tacit agreement never to reveal its details. But Core Wars was made public in 1983 when Ken Thompson, author of the Unix operating system, gave a speech not only revealing its origin but also laying out the blueprints for all to copy. The race to make the most ingenious virus had begun. Unfortunately, some immature and irresponsible programmers have introduced their creations into an unsuspecting world of computers users.
Contrary to U.S. government reports, computer-security analysts believe that in 1988, 100,000 computer systems and 500,000 users suffered viral attacks. The statiscs for 1989 promise to be
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