Directory of Viruses Resources

Home > Computers > Security > Malicious Software > Viruses

Computer Viruses are malicious programs designed to self-replicate and spread to other systems. Their function can range anywhere from displaying a message on a certain date, to permitting others to control your computer, to erasing files or formatting your hard drive. Trojan Horses are similar, except that a trojan horse is defined as any malicious program disguised as a harmless one. (Which means that all Computer Viruses are also trojan horses, but not all trojan horses are viruses) The best protection against either viruses or trojan horses is to be very careful not to run any untrusted files, and to run an up to date virus scanner regularly.

Subcategories

• Detection and Removal Tools
• Historic Viruses
• Services

Resources in This Category

• AskMen.com - How To: Keep Your Computer Virus-Free

  http://www.askmen.com/fashion/how_to_60/66_how_to.html
  Article with basic advice on virus prevention, and a primer on computer virus terminology.

• Burton Systems Software - Virus Avoidance Advice

  http://www.burtonsys.com/virus_advice.html
  Advice for avoiding and recovering from computer virus infections, mostly for users of Microsoft Windows. Includes links to many free tools and other resources.

• comp.virus Newsgroup FAQs

  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/comp/comp.virus.html
  FAQs from the comp.virus newsgroup

• Computer Virus Myths

  http://www.vmyths.com/
  The canonical reference for computer virus myths, hoaxes, and urban legends.

• Doug Muth's Anti-Virus Help Page

  http://www.claws-and-paws.com/virus/
  Independent site with FAQs, papers, and other antivirus resources.

• EICAR test file

  http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
  Provides a standardized test file for signature based virus detection software. This file can be used to verify the correct operation of antivirus software without unnecessary exposure to viruses.

• European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research (EICAR)

  http://www.eicar.org/
  Combines universities, industry, media, technical, security, and legal experts from civil and military government and law enforcement as well as privacy protection organizations whose objectives are to unite non-commercial efforts against writing and proliferation of malicious code like computer viruses or Trojan Horses, and against computer crime and fraud.

• Examples of Malicious Computer Programs

  http://www.rbs2.com/cvirus.htm
  Long essay that describes harm done by major computer viruses or worms, and discusses the nonexistent or lenient punishment for the authors or distributors of these malicious programs.

• F-Secure Virus Information Centre

  http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/
  A searchable database of virus descriptions, from the provider of F-Secure range of anti-virus software.

• How Stuff Works: Computer Virus

  http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm
  Multipart tutorial describes how computer viruses work.

• Malware-Traffic-Analysis.net

  http://www.malware-traffic-analysis.net/
  News about current malware strains, tutorials and examples of traffic analysis and samples to download.

• McAfee Virus Information

  http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp
  Virus alerts, mailing list, and searchable descriptions of common viruses.

• OpenAntiVirus Project

  http://www.openantivirus.org/
  Project aimed at developing open source antivirus software comparable to current commercial offerings.

• Panda Software Virus Laboratory

  http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/
  Up to date and in-depth descriptions of the most common viruses by Panda Software, makers of Panda Antivirus Platinum.

• Personal Home page - Ferrie, Peter

  http://pferrie.tripod.com/
  Various research papers on computer viruses

• Secunia - Virus Information

  http://secunia.com/virus_information/
  Collects virus information from multiple anti-virus vendors, and the collected information is grouped and indexed. When certain conditions are met virus alerts are generated and can be emailed.

• Softpanorama University Skeptical Antivirus page

  http://www.softpanorama.org/Antivirus/index.shtml
  A skeptical look at anti-virus protection.

• Solo Antivirus - Virus encyclopedia

  http://www.srnmicro.com/virusinfo/
  Contains details about latest virus alerts and wide spread virus information.

• Symantec AntiVirus Research Center

  http://www.symantec.com/security_response/index.jsp
  Virus Encyclopedia site maintained by Symantec, makers of the popular Norton AntiVirus product.

• Team Anti-Virus

  http://www.teamanti-virus.org/
  An organization for independent anti-virus researchers to facilitate communication, collaboration, and public education. Publishes and links to many papers written by independent researchers.

• The WildList Organization International

  http://www.wildlist.org/
  Organization which maintains a list of computer viruses which are still found "in the wild".

• Trend Virus Encyclopedia

  http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/
  Trend Micro issues regular advisories regarding new viruses, including a guide to avoiding them in the first place. Site covers risk factor of the newest viruses. lists top ten virus and offers a security alert archive.

• Virus or Hoax?

  http://virusall.com/
  Created to provide basic information about viruses. Links to major anti-virus companies, public services, software downloads, and updates.

• Windows Startup Tasks

  http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
  Massive listing of tasks that may be running on a Windows system at startup, including tasks which may be created by viruses, worms, spyware, and trojans

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