Savannah Owens

ENGL 2116
10/03/16
Outline of Computer Viruses and Malware:
Computer viruses and malware are a threat to everyones computers nowadays. To start
off, a computer virus is a piece of code that is able to make copies of itself and has some kind of
bad effect on a computer like corrupting the system or destroying some of the data. Malware is
software that is intended to damage computers or computer systems When it comes to viruses
and malware there are four main things to be concerned with which are spam, bugs, denials of
service, and malicious software. These are the problems that are society faces today.
Today we live in a world that relies on computers for many different things. So if there is
a threat to computers, it is also a threat to us. The four main ones I listed above are threats we
have to consider. Spam is what is referred to as an abundance of unwanted bulk emails that
outbreak the mailboxes of internet users all around the world. Bugs are errors in the software that
could easily just kill of your software immediately. They can also cause data corruption, security
weaknesses, and problems that are difficult to find. Denial of service is an attack that can use up
all available disk space on a system so other users cant make use of it. This causes traffic on the
network so real traffic on the network cant get through which is a denial of service. The last
thing to be concerned about is malicious software. This is one of the hardest things we struggle
with today. Its software whose main intention is malicious or effect is malicious. It covers a wide
variety of threats like viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Malware makes a big
connection to all of these, so addressing it is necessary to improve our computer security.
My focus for this is to research all the different ways that to detect a virus or malware and
destroy it. Computer security is so important in our society today so I think that finding out the

Savannah Owens
ENGL 2116
10/03/16
different techniques that help with preventing this would be very beneficial. Not everyone in our
world is even aware of some of these things that go on within computers and believe it needs to
be more known. I am just vaguely familiar with the topic but am very interested in finding out
more. Just to get started, one thing that helps with the problem is anti-virus software. There are
three major tasks with this which are detection, identification, and disinfection. Basically this
detects if we are dealing with a virus or not, identifies what kind of virus it is, and disinfects the
virus.
In conclusion, there are so many different kinds of dangerous viruses and malware out
there today. The list goes on and on and something needs to be done about it. More precautions
need to be taken. Researching on all of the different ways to detect and prevent this will be very
knowledgeable. It is a topic that everyone can relate to even if they dont realize. Ive plenty of
viruses on my laptop so knowing how to fix the situation would be very helpful.

Aycock, John D. Computer Viruses and Malware. New York: Springer, 2006. Internet resource.
Bosworth, Seymour, Michel E. Kabay, and Eric Whyne. Computer Security Handbook. , 2014.
Internet resource.
Computer Viruses and Other Malicious Software: A Threat to the Internet Economy. Paris:
Filiol, Eric. Computer Viruses: From Theory to Applications. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2005.
Internet resource.

Savannah Owens
ENGL 2116
10/03/16
Mell, Peter, Karen Kent, and Joseph Nusbaum. Guide to Malware Incident Prevention and
Handling. Gaithersburg, MD: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Technology Administration, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, 2005. Internet resource.
Minimizing the Effects of Malware on Your Computer. Washington, D.C.: Federal Trade
Commission, 2008. Internet resource.
OECD, 2009. Internet resource.