System+Fundamentals

=Issues related to viruses on both stand-alone and network systems=

What is a computer virus?
In simple words, a computer virus is a dangerous computer program with the characteristic feature of being able to generate copies of itself, and thereby spreading. Additionally most computer viruses have a destructive payload that is activated under certain conditions. In reference to IT definitions, a computer virus is a self-replicating program containing code that explicitly copies itself and can "infect" other programs by modifying them or their environment such that a call to an infected program implies a call to a (possibly evolved) copy of the virus.

Why secure a stand-alone or a network system?
Computer security is need so that programs, files etc are not damaged by viruses or are not hacked by intruders. There are several types of damages that can be caused by viruses. They are:
 * Damage or destruction of internal data.
 * Loss of sensitive information to hostile parties.
 * Use of sensitive information to steal items of monitory value.
 * Use of sensitive information against the organization's customers which may result in legal action by customers against the organization and loss of customers.
 * Damage to the reputation of an organization.
 * Monitory damage due to loss of sensitive information, destruction of data, hostile use of sensitive data, or damage to the organization's reputation.

Security Issues
There are many security issues related to viruses. Computer security is concerned wi th taking care of hardware, software and data. But in this case, security is mainly concerned with software and data. Software: Virus can easily access a computer or network and infect the system. The best way to remove the viruses is to use an anti-virus system which can clean the virus. But sometimes even the anti-virus software’s cannot clean specific viruses. Data: Virus can easily get into a system and corrupt important and valuable files. The main reason a virus gets into a system because network administrators like to believe that their network is secure and those who break into networks may like to believe that they can break into any network. I believe that overconfidence plays a n important role in allowing networks to be intruded upon. There are many fallacies that network administrators may fall victim to. These fallacies may allow administrators to wrongfully believe that their network is more secure than it really is.