Research on computer viruses

Computer viruses like biological viruses seem to be an intricate part of our everyday life. No matter how much we try to eradicate them they seem to always hang around (covertly). Since 1949 theories for self-replicating programs have been developed in one form or another.In fact the first computers to experience some form of a virus were the UNIVAC 1108 and the IBM 360/370 units. The viruses that infected these two earlier computers were called "Pervading Animal" and "The Christmas Tree". These are probably the very first during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Others Like ' Brian - Vienna - Cascade and PingPong are consider the first, but this too is debated til this day. It was probably during the 1980s when the major public was exposed to virus threats.The "Apple 1,2,3" affected some computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include a form of replication. A virus that was found on the Apple II operating system spread via pirated computer games. In 1986, two programmers named Basit and Amjad replaced the executable code in the 'boot' sector of a floppy disk with their own code. This code, designed to infect each 360kb floppy that was accessed on any hard drive had the copyright 'Brian' on its label. It is also considered to be the first "bootable style" virus. Although most virus programs were devoloped by students trying to show their skills or seeking admiration from their fellow students and teachers, computer viruses are more often originating from cyber-criminals. These cyber-criminals design viruses and worms to steal or copy personal and sensitive data for financial gain. Most of these viruses tend to access personal computers via the internets (e-mail), .exe, .com, and other unprotected programs. In 1987 the 'Lehiegh' was one of the first file viruses to be unleached. This virus infected the command (.com) files.
While researching viruses and worms I came to understand the differences in the level of dangers they posed to any computer. Even the most powerful supercomputers are exposed to infections. I also learned that the most dangerous of these viruses are "Polymorphic viruses. Trojan horses and Worms are forms of polymorphic virial programs. They attempt to simulate exciting programs or softwares.For example, Trojan horses usually infect e-mail software via attachments or spamwares. A Macro virus, oftened scripted into common applications program, such as Word or Exel, is spread by infecting documents and spreadsheets. On the otherhand a computer worm is a self replicating computer program that uses a network to send copies of itself to other computers on the network without any user intervention. Unlike a virus it doesn't have to attach itself to an existing program. One of the first computer worms written by a Cornell University student, Robert Tappan Morris, was in 1986. It was launched on November 2, 1988 from MIT. Today a variety of antivirus software programs are available free online or can be purchased at any computer and electronics stores.The best way to protect your computer is to always have an up-to-date antivirus or malware program running. Some of the most trusted antivirus programs are: Norton Antivirus - AVG - McAfee - Ad-ware - ClamWin and Avast (free).

References:
Wikipedia.com/internet/virus-creation./34dffr/html
Support.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/indicator.aspx
Washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/article/a50636-2002jun26.html
Dictionary.reference.com/browse/computer +virus?ss=0