With the Mac 128K, Apple gave consumers and business people the chance to own a low cost personal computer. By today’s standards, the specs were not impressive:
Motorola 8MHz 68000 processor
128KB of RAM
64KB of ROM
2 serial ports
3.5 inch floppy drive
9 inch black and white monitor
Nonetheless, the Mac had advantages over its competitors. The processor was relatively fast, and the 64KB ROM had built-in applications that freed up the 128KB of RAM for other software. In addition, the 3.5 inch floppy discs stored 25% more data than IBM’s 5.25 inch equivalents.
The most significant aspect of the Mac, however, was the graphical user interface (GUI). This gave users screen icons they could open with a mouse. Until this point, most computers had text-based boxes in which users typed commands in order to navigate and manage software.
Another GUI feature the Mac introduced was a menu bar. This had terms now taken for granted such as File, Search, and Format, together with pull-down menus. The future of computing had arrived.
Before the Mac
The Mac 128K was not Apple’s first computer. This distinction went to the Apple I, a personal hand-built computer kit that was actually a motherboard. The kit came without a keyboard, casing or a monitor.
The Apple I appeared in July 1976. In April the following year, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple, introduced Apple II. Although originally supplied with cassette tape storage, later models had 5.25 inch floppy disc drives. These drives worked well with the colour graphics and high build quality to make the Apple II ideal for business programmes such as the VisiCalc spreadsheet.
Keen to maintain a good relationship with business, Apple went on to release the Apple III in May 1980. The company was now a major force alongside Microsoft and IBM in the field of office computers.
Mac’s arrival
Apple’s computers were proving successful with business people, but the home computing market had yet to develop. In 1978, Apple began to address this by starting work on a machine designed specifically for personal use.
This was the time Apple began to see the possibilities of GUI. Steve Jobs in particular felt this was an area where the company should concentrate its efforts. GUI seemed perfect for the home market because it offered users an attractive and simple working principle.
The first result of Apple’s efforts was the Lisa, released in 1983. Unfortunately, the Lisa was too expensive for the home user market, but it pointed the way forward. The next development was, in fact, quick to come with the arrival of the Mac 128K.
Sales of this first Mac were encouraging. They improved with the availability of peripherals such as an external floppy drive, but what really caught everyone’s attention were Apple’s LaserWriter and PageMaker. The LaserWriter was a laser printer first introduced in January 1985; PageMaker was a desktop publishing programme initially created by Aldus Corporation for Apple. The combination of Mac, LaserWriter and PageMaker soon became the heart of the mid-1980s desktop publishing boom.
Development
Meanwhile, Apple continued developing the Mac. In September 1984, it launched the Mac 512K with four times more RAM than the original model. The new Mac shared many other specs with its predecessor, but newly-released software such as MacDraw, MacProject and Microsoft Excel for Mac extended its capabilities.
Apple also introduced its 20MB HD20 hard drive, and in January 1986 brought out its Mac Plus, a computer that held its own in the market for almost five years. The Mac Plus was notable for its 1MB RAM that users could expand to 4MB. It also featured a small computer system interface (SCSI) port. This gave users the opportunity to attach a wide range of printers, monitors, CD-ROM drives and hard drives.
Despite the popularity of the Mac Plus, Apple continued its push for innovation and released two further Mac models in March 1987 – the Mac SE and the Mac II. The main features of the Mac SE were
an internal hard disc of either 20MB or 40MB
an expansion slot
the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) for attaching low speed peripherals
an improved SCSI
an internal fan
With the Mac II, Apple used a new design principle: a horizontal desktop case and a separate monitor. The processor was a 16MHz Motorola 68020, and the RAM was 1MB with the potential to expand to 20MB. Above all, the Mac II ran the 2D graphics application, QuickDraw, making the computer highly desirable for media professionals.
The Mac II was an expensive piece of hardware, but Apple redressed the balance in October 1990 with the Mac Classic. This was a personal home computer for a reasonable price, modelled on the style of the Mac 128K. The display was still 9 inches and monochrome, but there was a 40MB hard drive storage option and 1MB of standard RAM (expandable to 4MB). Thanks to its low cost, versatility and reliability, the Mac Classic was popular in both homes and schools.
For those who wanted colour, consumers had an alternative choice in the form of the Mac LC. Apple introduced updated LC models on a regular basis until 1997, although the name changed to Mac Performa from 1992 for the home rather than student models.
Processors
In 1994, Apple stopped using Motorola processors. Instead, the company opted for chips built by AIM, a partnership arrangement between Apple, IBM and Motorola. These processors were successful for 12 years, after which Apple switched again, this time to Intel. As a result, Mac owners can now run Windows XP and Vista on their machines (with the help of Apple’s Boot Camp software).
Professional computing
In 1991, the Mac Quadra computer range replaced the Mac II and gave professional users the best in available power, speed and image capability. Three years later, to match the arrival of the new AIM processors, Apple began the Power Mac range of high end workstations. Power Macs were so popular, they sold more than a million in under a year and lasted until 2006 when the Mac Pro took over.
Portability
Apple was never content to simply develop home-based and business computers. The company always had an eye on producing a machine that was not just easy to use but light to carry. This vision led to the release of Apple’s MacBook Air in January 2008, but long before this, Apple produced the Mac Portable.
1989’s Mac Portable is a long way from the MacBook Air. Nonetheless, it was a serious attempt to produce a battery-powered computer with the power of a desktop. Battery life was a remarkable 12 hours and there were many original features. Critical reception was excellent, but sales failed to match this favourable response.
Despite this, Apple was undeterred and introduced its new laptop range, the PowerBooks, in 1991. PowerBooks set the standard for all other laptops, and over a period of 15 years won numerous awards for design and pioneering features.
1998 – present
Having shown what it was possible to achieve with laptops, Apple further grabbed the attention of the computer world with its 1998 desk-based computers. These were the iMac G3s with their “Bondi Blue” partly transparent casing. Interest was overwhelming, and Apple struggled to meet the demand.
Since then, Apple has maintained its policy of continuous improvement. It has regularly introduced new computer models to suit students, home users, business people and multimedia professionals. As well as the iMac, the Mac Pro and the MacBook Air, there are the MacBook, the MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini.
All of these are the result of years of experience. They are also the product of a commitment to create the ideal computers for every possible need. The loyalty and enthusiasm of Mac owners since 1984 is clear confirmation of Apple’s success.
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Selasa, 17 Februari 2009
Senin, 16 Februari 2009
The Difference between DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW Explained
* The DVD-R/RW standard was developed by Pioneer, and is used primarily by Apple and Pioneer. These "minus" discs can only be written to in one layer on the discs surface. In addition, this format is supported by the DVD forum, but is in no way an industry standard. DVD-R/RW discs are cheaper than the "plus" format.
* The DVD+R/RW format is supported by Philips, Dell, Sony, HP, and Mcft. These discs can be written to in multiple layers, giving them slightly better and more disc storage than the "minus" format. Because of this additional capacity, they are slightly more expensive than "minus" discs. A couple final things to clear up is the difference between DVD-ROM and DVD+RW, or the other DVD formats I mentioned above. The DVD-ROM drive can only read DVDs, while the other DVD drives can read and write data to DVDs. And naturally the DVD+RW CD+RW difference can be explained by the "DVD" or "CD" prefix. DVDs, on average, can store up to 4.7 GB of data, while a CD can only store about 700 MB of data, or about 15% of a DVD's capacity. While CDs are slightly cheaper, in my opinion, the benefits of DVDs are much greater. So now that you've learned about the difference between DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and even DVD-ROM, which one is right for you? The easiest way to determine which is more beneficial is to watch the industry trends. A few years ago all pre-built computers were shipping with DVD-ROM drives. Today, most PCs have a burnable DVD drive. I feel that the benefits of having a burnable DVD drive far outweigh any additional costs. They store much more data, and they are ideal for storing your home movies to watch on your DVD player. My advice is to look at DVD burners that support all of the major formats I've mentioned above, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. While a DVD drive that supports all of these formats may be slightly more expensive, it will allow you to use any type of DVD disc to burn to, and you'll be protected from any industry shifts to one format or the other.
Sabtu, 14 Februari 2009
Processor History
In this post I will talk about the history of processor. Starting Intel's flagship processor, the Pentium. In 1993, Intel brought the PC to a new level with the Pentium processor. The first Pentium processor ran at an astounding 60 Mhz, had 3.3 million transistors, and performed 100 Million Instructions per Second (MPS). Although no one today refers to the first Pentium processor as a Pentium 1, it is the original of four types of Pentium processors developed by Intel.
Once the first Pentium became obsolete, the Pentium 2 was introduced. Starting at 233 Mhz, the Pentium 2 took over its sibling’s footsteps and was designed to run from 233 Mhz to 450 Mhz. At about the same time, the Intel Celeron processor was presented; it was identical to the Pentium 2 except it was considered a “lower end” processor because of two main differences: a smaller cache and a slower bus speed. Cache is a special part of the processor which helps to process frequently used information faster; bus speed (also known as FSB or Front Side Bus) is responsible for the speed at which all parts of the computer communicate with each other. Bus has a dramatic effect on overall speed of the computer. In comparison, Pentium processor had a 100 Mhz bus, whereas the lower-end Celeron only operated at a 66 Mhz bus.
Not too long after the introduction of the Celeron, the first Pentium 3 processor replaced the Pentium 2 and ran at 450 Mhz. both the Pentium 3 and Celeron processors are still in production today, reaching speeds up to 1260 Mhz (or 1.26 Ghz) and beyond. The Pentium 3 bus was first rated at 100 Mhz but then increased to 133 Mhz beginning with the 500 Mhz model processor – also known as the “500EB” model.
Even though AMD has been around for quite some time, AMD’s popularity didn’t come into the spot light until the introduction of the Athlon processor. At around the same time that Intel introduced their 600 Mhz Pentium processors, AMD wowed the world with the Athlon. The Athlon processor not only ran programs just as well as the Intel Pentium 3 and its predecessors – its bus speed also ran twice as fast as the Pentium 3. AMD’s ground breaking technology utilized a dual bus even though the clock-speed (Mhz rating ) was the same. AMD became a success story with the Athlon processor and, like Intel, began producing a lower cost processor – the AMD Duron – which also had less cache. In comparison to Intel’s Celeron, the Duron still had a 200 Mhz bus, while the Celeron ran only at a mere 66 Mhz.
Today’s processors
As of late, AMD changed their processor architecture once more and has introduced their new line of Athlon processor :the Athlon XP. While still an Athlon processor, the major difference with the Athlon XP is that it does not use the conventional Mhz rating to depict its speed. This is because AMD believes that a Mhz rating would undermine its true performance and therefore wishes to change public perception. For who insist of raw of Mhz number, AMD claims a 25% perfomance increase of their XP 1900+ compared to a Pentium 4 running at 1900 Mhz. since the word about AMD’s success spread, intel recently introduced the Pentium 4 with a groundbreaking speed of 1400 Mhz. although the Pentium 4 offers a bus speed of 400 Mhz, the processor is still twice as expensive as the AMD’s Athlon XP processor, while performing roughly the same, if not better.
Summary
The asbsolute most important aspect of AMD’s Duron and Athlon processor is that they are half the price of intel’s Celeron and Pentium 3 and 4 processors and still out perform them in almost every instance.
AMD processor are also popular because they are extremly overclockable – that is with a good mother board, they are able to go faster than what they are rated. For example: I own an AMD Athlon 850 Mhz, but have it overclock and running 1000 Mhz with a 266 Mhz bus. While overclocking is an issue for the more technically inclined, I will simply state this as another reason for AMD’s popularity.
Read More....
Once the first Pentium became obsolete, the Pentium 2 was introduced. Starting at 233 Mhz, the Pentium 2 took over its sibling’s footsteps and was designed to run from 233 Mhz to 450 Mhz. At about the same time, the Intel Celeron processor was presented; it was identical to the Pentium 2 except it was considered a “lower end” processor because of two main differences: a smaller cache and a slower bus speed. Cache is a special part of the processor which helps to process frequently used information faster; bus speed (also known as FSB or Front Side Bus) is responsible for the speed at which all parts of the computer communicate with each other. Bus has a dramatic effect on overall speed of the computer. In comparison, Pentium processor had a 100 Mhz bus, whereas the lower-end Celeron only operated at a 66 Mhz bus.
Not too long after the introduction of the Celeron, the first Pentium 3 processor replaced the Pentium 2 and ran at 450 Mhz. both the Pentium 3 and Celeron processors are still in production today, reaching speeds up to 1260 Mhz (or 1.26 Ghz) and beyond. The Pentium 3 bus was first rated at 100 Mhz but then increased to 133 Mhz beginning with the 500 Mhz model processor – also known as the “500EB” model.
Even though AMD has been around for quite some time, AMD’s popularity didn’t come into the spot light until the introduction of the Athlon processor. At around the same time that Intel introduced their 600 Mhz Pentium processors, AMD wowed the world with the Athlon. The Athlon processor not only ran programs just as well as the Intel Pentium 3 and its predecessors – its bus speed also ran twice as fast as the Pentium 3. AMD’s ground breaking technology utilized a dual bus even though the clock-speed (Mhz rating ) was the same. AMD became a success story with the Athlon processor and, like Intel, began producing a lower cost processor – the AMD Duron – which also had less cache. In comparison to Intel’s Celeron, the Duron still had a 200 Mhz bus, while the Celeron ran only at a mere 66 Mhz.
Today’s processors
As of late, AMD changed their processor architecture once more and has introduced their new line of Athlon processor :the Athlon XP. While still an Athlon processor, the major difference with the Athlon XP is that it does not use the conventional Mhz rating to depict its speed. This is because AMD believes that a Mhz rating would undermine its true performance and therefore wishes to change public perception. For who insist of raw of Mhz number, AMD claims a 25% perfomance increase of their XP 1900+ compared to a Pentium 4 running at 1900 Mhz. since the word about AMD’s success spread, intel recently introduced the Pentium 4 with a groundbreaking speed of 1400 Mhz. although the Pentium 4 offers a bus speed of 400 Mhz, the processor is still twice as expensive as the AMD’s Athlon XP processor, while performing roughly the same, if not better.
Summary
The asbsolute most important aspect of AMD’s Duron and Athlon processor is that they are half the price of intel’s Celeron and Pentium 3 and 4 processors and still out perform them in almost every instance.
AMD processor are also popular because they are extremly overclockable – that is with a good mother board, they are able to go faster than what they are rated. For example: I own an AMD Athlon 850 Mhz, but have it overclock and running 1000 Mhz with a 266 Mhz bus. While overclocking is an issue for the more technically inclined, I will simply state this as another reason for AMD’s popularity.
Read More....
Kamis, 12 Februari 2009
Computer Viruses History
In this article I will give you the information about computer virus history in detail. this article consist of seven part, read carefully and enjoy. Don’t forget to leave a comment.
PART 1
Like any other field in computer science, viruses have evolved -a great deal indeed- over the years. In the series of press releases which start today, we will look at the origins and evolution of malicious code since it first appeared up to the present. Going back to the origin of viruses, it was in 1949 that Mathematician John Von Neumann described self-replicating programs which could resemble computer viruses as they are known today. However, it was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players’ computers. The creators of this peculiar game also created the first antivirus, an application named Reeper, which could destroy copies created by Core Wars. However, it was only in 1983 that one of these programmers announced the existence of Core Wars, which was described the following year in a prestigious scientific magazine: this was actually the starting point of what we call computer viruses today. At that time, a still young MS-DOS was starting to become the preeminent operating system worldwide. This was a system with great prospects, but still many deficiencies as well, which arose from software developments and the lack of many hardware elements known today. Even like this, this new operating system became the target of a virus in 1986: Brain, a malicious code created in Pakistan which infected boot sectors of disks so that their contents could not be accessed. That year also saw the birth of the first Trojan: an application called PC-Write. Shortly after, virus writers realized that infecting files could be even more harmful to systems. In 1987, a virus called Suriv-02 appeared, which infected COM files and opened the door to the infamous viruses Jerusalem or Viernes 13. However, the worst was still to come: 1988 set the date when the “Morris worm” appeared, infecting 6,000 computers. From that date up to 1995 the types of malicious codes that are known today started being developed: the first macro viruses appeared, polymorphic viruses … Some of these even triggered epidemics, such as MichaelAngelo. However, there was an event that changed the virus scenario worldwide: the massive use of the Internet and e-mail. Little by little, viruses started adapting to this new situation until the appearance, in 1999, of Melissa, the first malicious code to cause a worldwide epidemic, opening a new era for computer viruses.
PART 2
This second installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how malicious code used to spread before use of the Internet and e-mail became as commonplace as it is today, and the main objectives of the creators of those earlier viruses. Until the worldwide web and e-mail were adopted as a standard means of communication the world over, the main mediums through which viruses spread were floppy disks, removable drives, CDs, etc., containing files that were already infected or with the virus code in an executable boot sector. When a virus entered a system it could go memory resident, infecting other files as they were opened, or it could start to reproduce immediately, also infecting other files on the system. The virus code could also be triggered by a certain event, for example when the system clock reached a certain date or time. In this case, the virus creator would calculate the time necessary for the virus to spread and then set a date –often with some particular significance- for the virus to activate. In this way, the virus would have an incubation period during which it didn’t visibly affect computers, but just spread from one system to another waiting for ‘D-day’ to launch its payload. This incubation period would be vital to the virus successfully infecting as many computers as possible. One classic example of a destructive virus that lay low before releasing its payload was CIH, also known as Chernobyl. The most damaging version of this malicious code activated on April 26, when it would try to overwrite the flash-BIOS, the memory which includes the code needed to control PC devices. This virus, which first appeared in June 1998, had a serious impact for over two years and still continues to infect computers today. Because of the way in which they propagate, these viruses spread very slowly, especially in comparison to the speed of today’s malicious code. Towards the end of the Eighties, for example, the Friday 13th (or Jerusalem) virus needed a long time to actually spread and continued to infect computers for some years. In contrast, experts reckon that in January 2003, SQLSlammer took just ten minutes to cause global communication problems across the Internet.
Notoriety versus stealth
For the most part, in the past, the activation of a malicious code triggered a series of on screen messages or images, or caused sounds to be emitted to catch the user’s attention. Such was the case with the Ping Pong virus, which displayed a ball bouncing from one side of the screen to another. This kind of elaborate display was used by the creator of the virus to gain as much notoriety as possible. Nowadays however, the opposite is the norm, with virus authors trying to make malicious code as discreet as possible, infecting users’ systems without them noticing that anything is amiss.
PART 3
This third installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how the Internet and e-mail changed the propagation techniques used by computer viruses. Internet and e-mail revolutionized communications. However, as expected, virus creators didn’t take long to realize that along with this new means of communication, an excellent way of spreading their creations far and wide had also dawned. Therefore, they quickly changed their aim from infecting a few computers while drawing as much attention to themselves as possible, to damaging as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. This change in strategy resulted in the first global virus epidemic, which was caused by the Melissa worm. With the appearance of Melissa, the economic impact of a virus started to become an issue. As a result, users -above all companies- started to become seriously concerned about the consequences of viruses on the security of their computers. This is how users discovered antivirus programs, which started to be installed widely. However, this also brought about a new challenge for virus writers, how to slip past this protection and how to persuade users to run infected files. The answer to which of these virus strategies was the most effective came in the form of a new worm: Love Letter, which used a simple but effective ruse that could be considered an early type of social engineering. This strategy involves inserting false messages that trick users into thinking that the message includes anything, except a virus. This worm’s bait was simple; it led users to believe that they had received a love letter. This technique is still the most widely used. However, it is closely followed by another tactic that has been the center of attention lately: exploiting vulnerabilities in commonly used software. This strategy offers a range of possibilities depending on the security hole exploited. The first malicious code to use this method –and quite successfully- were the BubbleBoy and Kakworm worms. These worms exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer by inserting HTML code in the body of the e-mail message, which allowed them to run automatically, without needing the user to do a thing. Vulnerabilities allow many different types of actions to be carried out. For example, they allow viruses to be dropped on computers directly from the Internet -such as the Blaster worm-. In fact, the effects of the virus depend on the vulnerability that the virus author tries to exploit.
PART 4
In the early days of computers, there were relatively few PCs likely to contain “sensitive” information, such as credit card numbers or other financial data, and these were generally limited to large companies that had already incorporated computers into working processes. In any event, information stored in computers was not likely to be compromised, unless the computer was connected to a network through which the information could be transmitted. Of course, there were exceptions to this and there were cases in which hackers perpetrated frauds using data stored in IT systems. However, this was achieved through typical hacking activities, with no viruses involved. The advent of the Internet however caused virus creators to change their objectives, and, from that moment on, they tried to infect as many computers as possible in the shortest time. Also, the introduction of Internet services -like e-banking or online shopping- brought in another change. Some virus creators started writing malicious codes not to infect computers, but, to steal confidential data associated to those services. Evidently, to achieve this, they needed viruses that could infect many computers silently. Their malicious labor was finally rewarded with the appearance, in 1986, of a new breed of malicious code generically called “Trojan Horse”, or simply “Trojan”. This first Trojan was called PC-Write and tried to pass itself off as the shareware version of a text processor. When run, the Trojan displayed a functional text processor on screen. The problem was that, while the user wrote, PC-Write deleted and corrupted files on the computers’ hard disk. After PC-Write, this type of malicious code evolved very quickly to reach the stage of present-day Trojans. Today, many of the people who design Trojans to steal data cannot be considered virus writers but simply thieves who, instead of using blowtorches or dynamite have turned to viruses to commit their crimes. Ldpinch.W or the Bancos or Tolger families of Trojans are examples of this
PART 5
Even though none of them can be left aside, some particular fields of computer science have played a more determinant role than others with regard to the evolution of viruses. One of the most influential fields has been the development of programming languages. These languages are basically a means of communication with computers in order to tell them what to do. Even though each of them has its own specific development and formulation rules, computers in fact understand only one language called "machine code". Programming languages act as an interpreter between the programmer and the computer. Obviously, the more directly you can communicate with the computer, the better it will understand you, and more complex actions you can ask it to perform. According to this, programming languages can be divided into "low and high level" languages, depending on whether their syntax is more understandable for programmers or for computers. A "high level" language uses expressions that are easily understandable for most programmers, but not so much for computers. Visual Basic and C are good examples of this type of language. On the contrary, expressions used by "low level" languages are closer to machine code, but are very difficult to understand for someone who has not been involved in the programming process. One of the most powerful, most widely used examples of this type of language is "assembler". In order to explain the use of programming languages through virus history, it is necessary to refer to hardware evolution. It is not difficult to understand that an old 8-bit processor does not have the power of modern 64-bit processors, and this of course, has had an impact on the programming languages used. In this and the next installments of this series, we will look at the different programming languages used by virus creators through computer history:
- Virus antecessors: Core Wars
As was already explained in the first chapter of this series, a group of programs called Core Wars, developed by engineers at an important telecommunications company, are considered the antecessors of current-day viruses. Computer science was still in the early stages and programming languages had hardly developed. For this reason, authors of these proto-viruses used a language that was almost equal to machine code to program them. Curiously enough, it seems that one of the Core Wars programmers was Robert Thomas Morris, whose son programmed -years later- the "Morris worm". This malicious code became extraordinarily famous since it managed to infect 6,000 computers, an impressive figure for 1988.
- The new gurus of the 8-bits and the assembler language.
The names Altair, IMSAI and Apple in USA and Sinclair, Atari and Commodore in Europe, bring memories of times gone by, when a new generation of computer enthusiasts "fought" to establish their place in the programming world. To be the best, programmers needed to have profound knowledge of machine code and assembler, as interpreters of high-level languages used too much run time. BASIC, for example, was a relatively easy to learn language which allowed users to develop programs simply and quickly. It had however, many limitations. This caused the appearance of two groups of programmers: those who used assembler and those who turned to high-level languages (BASIC and PASCAL, mainly). Computer aficionados of the time enjoyed themselves more by programming useful software than malware. However, 1981 saw the birth of what can be considered the first 8-bit virus. Its name was "Elk Cloner", and was programmed in machine code. This virus could infect Apple II systems and displayed a message when it infected a computer.
PART 6
Computer viruses evolve in much the same way as in other areas of IT. Two of the most important factors in understanding how viruses have reached their current level are the development of programming languages and the appearance of increasingly powerful hardware. In 1981, almost at the same time as Elk Kloner (the first virus for 8-bit processors) made its appearance, a new operating system was growing in popularity. Its full name was Microsoft Disk Operating System, although computer buffs throughout the world would soon refer to it simply as DOS.
DOS viruses
The development of MS DOS systems occurred in parallel to the appearance of new, more powerful hardware. Personal computers were gradually establishing themselves as tools that people could use in their everyday lives, and the result was that the number of PCs users grew substantially. Perhaps inevitably, more users also started creating viruses. Gradually, we witnessed the appearance of the first viruses and Trojans for DOS, written in assembler language and demonstrating a degree of skill on the part of their authors. Far less programmers know assembler language than are familiar with high-level languages that are far easier to learn. Malicious code written in Fortran, Basic, Cobol, C or Pascal soon began to appear. The last two languages, which are well established and very powerful, are the most widely used, particularly in their TurboC and Turbo Pascal versions. This ultimately led to the appearance of “virus families”: that is, viruses that are followed by a vast number of related viruses which are slightly modified forms of the original code. Other users took the less ‘artistic’ approach of creating destructive viruses that did not require any great knowledge of programming. As a result, batch processing file viruses or BAT viruses began to appear.
Win16 viruses
The development of 16-bit processors led to a new era in computing. The first consequence was the birth of Windows, which, at the time, was just an application to make it easier to handle DOS using a graphic interface. The structure of Windows 3.xx files is rather difficult to understand, and the assembler language code is very complicated, as a result of which few programmers initially attempted to develop viruses for this platform. But this problem was soon solved thanks to the development of programming tools for high-level languages, above all Visual Basic. This application is so effective that many virus creators adopted it as their ‘daily working tool’. This meant that writing a virus had become a very straightforward task, and viruses soon appeared in their hundreds. This development was accompanied by the appearance of the first Trojans able to steal passwords. As a result, more than 500 variants of the AOL Trojan family -designed to steal personal information from infected computers- were identified.
PART 7
This seventh edition on the history of computer viruses will look at how the development of Windows and Visual Basic has influenced the evolution of viruses, as with the development of these, worldwide epidemics also evolved such as the first one caused by Melissa in 1999. While Windows changed from being an application designed to make DOS easier to manage to a 32-bit platform and operating system in its own right, virus creators went back to using assembler as the main language for programming viruses. Versions 5 and 6 of Visual Basic (VB) were developed, making it the preferred tool, along with Borland Delphi (the Pascal development for the Windows environment), for Trojan and worm writers. Then, Visual C, a powerful environment developed in C for Windows, was adopted for creating viruses, Trojans and worms. This last type of malware gained unusual strength, taking over almost all other types of viruses. Even though the characteristics of worms have changed over time, they all have the same objective: to spread to as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. With time, Visual Basic became extremely popular and Microsoft implemented part of the functionality of this language as an interpreter capable of running script files with a similar syntax. At the same time as the Win32 platform was implemented, the first script viruses also appeared: malware inside a simple text file. These demonstrated that not only executable files (.EXE and .COM files) could carry viruses. As already seen with BAT viruses, there are also other means of propagation, proving the saying "anything that can be executed directly or through a interpreter can contain malware." To be specific, the first viruses that infected the macros included in Microsoft Office emerged. As a result, Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint become ways of spreading ‘lethal weapons’, which destroyed information when the user simply opened a document.
Melissa and self-executing worms
The powerful script interpreters in Microsoft Office allowed virus authors to arm their creations with the characteristics of worms. A clear example is Melissa, a Word macro virus with the characteristics of a worm that infects Word 97 and 2000 documents. This worm automatically sends itself out as an attachment to an e-mail message to the first 50 contacts in the Outlook address book on the affected computer. This technique, which has unfortunately become very popular nowadays, was first used in this virus which, in 1999, caused one of the largest epidemics in computer history in just a few days. In fact, companies like Microsoft, Intel or Lucent Technologies had to block their connections to the Internet due to the actions of Melissa. The technique started by Melissa was developed in 1999 by viruses like VBS/Freelink, which unlike its predecessor sent itself out to all the contacts in the address book on the infected PC. This started a new wave of worms capable of sending themselves out to all the contacts in the Outlook address book on the infected computer. Of these, the worm that most stands out from the rest is VBS/LoveLetter, more commonly known as ‘I love You’, which emerged in May 2000 and caused an epidemic that caused damage estimated at 10,000 million euros. In order to get the user’s attention and help it to spread, this worm sent itself out in an e-mail message with the subject ‘ILOVEYOU’ and an attached file called ‘LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.VBS’. When the user opened this attachment, the computer was infected. As well as Melissa, in 1999 another type of virus emerged that also marked a milestone in virus history. In November of that year, VBS/BubbleBoy appeared, a new type of Internet worm written in VB Script. VBS/BubbleBoy was automatically run without the user needing to click on an attached file, as it exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 5 to automatically run when the message was opened or viewed. This worm was followed in 2000 by JS/Kak.Worm, which spread by hiding behind Java Script in the auto-signature in Microsoft Outlook Express, allowing it to infect computers without the user needing to run an attached file. These were the first samples of a series of worms, which were joined later on by worms capable of attacking computers when the user is browsing the Internet.
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PART 1
Like any other field in computer science, viruses have evolved -a great deal indeed- over the years. In the series of press releases which start today, we will look at the origins and evolution of malicious code since it first appeared up to the present. Going back to the origin of viruses, it was in 1949 that Mathematician John Von Neumann described self-replicating programs which could resemble computer viruses as they are known today. However, it was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players’ computers. The creators of this peculiar game also created the first antivirus, an application named Reeper, which could destroy copies created by Core Wars. However, it was only in 1983 that one of these programmers announced the existence of Core Wars, which was described the following year in a prestigious scientific magazine: this was actually the starting point of what we call computer viruses today. At that time, a still young MS-DOS was starting to become the preeminent operating system worldwide. This was a system with great prospects, but still many deficiencies as well, which arose from software developments and the lack of many hardware elements known today. Even like this, this new operating system became the target of a virus in 1986: Brain, a malicious code created in Pakistan which infected boot sectors of disks so that their contents could not be accessed. That year also saw the birth of the first Trojan: an application called PC-Write. Shortly after, virus writers realized that infecting files could be even more harmful to systems. In 1987, a virus called Suriv-02 appeared, which infected COM files and opened the door to the infamous viruses Jerusalem or Viernes 13. However, the worst was still to come: 1988 set the date when the “Morris worm” appeared, infecting 6,000 computers. From that date up to 1995 the types of malicious codes that are known today started being developed: the first macro viruses appeared, polymorphic viruses … Some of these even triggered epidemics, such as MichaelAngelo. However, there was an event that changed the virus scenario worldwide: the massive use of the Internet and e-mail. Little by little, viruses started adapting to this new situation until the appearance, in 1999, of Melissa, the first malicious code to cause a worldwide epidemic, opening a new era for computer viruses.
PART 2
This second installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how malicious code used to spread before use of the Internet and e-mail became as commonplace as it is today, and the main objectives of the creators of those earlier viruses. Until the worldwide web and e-mail were adopted as a standard means of communication the world over, the main mediums through which viruses spread were floppy disks, removable drives, CDs, etc., containing files that were already infected or with the virus code in an executable boot sector. When a virus entered a system it could go memory resident, infecting other files as they were opened, or it could start to reproduce immediately, also infecting other files on the system. The virus code could also be triggered by a certain event, for example when the system clock reached a certain date or time. In this case, the virus creator would calculate the time necessary for the virus to spread and then set a date –often with some particular significance- for the virus to activate. In this way, the virus would have an incubation period during which it didn’t visibly affect computers, but just spread from one system to another waiting for ‘D-day’ to launch its payload. This incubation period would be vital to the virus successfully infecting as many computers as possible. One classic example of a destructive virus that lay low before releasing its payload was CIH, also known as Chernobyl. The most damaging version of this malicious code activated on April 26, when it would try to overwrite the flash-BIOS, the memory which includes the code needed to control PC devices. This virus, which first appeared in June 1998, had a serious impact for over two years and still continues to infect computers today. Because of the way in which they propagate, these viruses spread very slowly, especially in comparison to the speed of today’s malicious code. Towards the end of the Eighties, for example, the Friday 13th (or Jerusalem) virus needed a long time to actually spread and continued to infect computers for some years. In contrast, experts reckon that in January 2003, SQLSlammer took just ten minutes to cause global communication problems across the Internet.
Notoriety versus stealth
For the most part, in the past, the activation of a malicious code triggered a series of on screen messages or images, or caused sounds to be emitted to catch the user’s attention. Such was the case with the Ping Pong virus, which displayed a ball bouncing from one side of the screen to another. This kind of elaborate display was used by the creator of the virus to gain as much notoriety as possible. Nowadays however, the opposite is the norm, with virus authors trying to make malicious code as discreet as possible, infecting users’ systems without them noticing that anything is amiss.
PART 3
This third installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how the Internet and e-mail changed the propagation techniques used by computer viruses. Internet and e-mail revolutionized communications. However, as expected, virus creators didn’t take long to realize that along with this new means of communication, an excellent way of spreading their creations far and wide had also dawned. Therefore, they quickly changed their aim from infecting a few computers while drawing as much attention to themselves as possible, to damaging as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. This change in strategy resulted in the first global virus epidemic, which was caused by the Melissa worm. With the appearance of Melissa, the economic impact of a virus started to become an issue. As a result, users -above all companies- started to become seriously concerned about the consequences of viruses on the security of their computers. This is how users discovered antivirus programs, which started to be installed widely. However, this also brought about a new challenge for virus writers, how to slip past this protection and how to persuade users to run infected files. The answer to which of these virus strategies was the most effective came in the form of a new worm: Love Letter, which used a simple but effective ruse that could be considered an early type of social engineering. This strategy involves inserting false messages that trick users into thinking that the message includes anything, except a virus. This worm’s bait was simple; it led users to believe that they had received a love letter. This technique is still the most widely used. However, it is closely followed by another tactic that has been the center of attention lately: exploiting vulnerabilities in commonly used software. This strategy offers a range of possibilities depending on the security hole exploited. The first malicious code to use this method –and quite successfully- were the BubbleBoy and Kakworm worms. These worms exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer by inserting HTML code in the body of the e-mail message, which allowed them to run automatically, without needing the user to do a thing. Vulnerabilities allow many different types of actions to be carried out. For example, they allow viruses to be dropped on computers directly from the Internet -such as the Blaster worm-. In fact, the effects of the virus depend on the vulnerability that the virus author tries to exploit.
PART 4
In the early days of computers, there were relatively few PCs likely to contain “sensitive” information, such as credit card numbers or other financial data, and these were generally limited to large companies that had already incorporated computers into working processes. In any event, information stored in computers was not likely to be compromised, unless the computer was connected to a network through which the information could be transmitted. Of course, there were exceptions to this and there were cases in which hackers perpetrated frauds using data stored in IT systems. However, this was achieved through typical hacking activities, with no viruses involved. The advent of the Internet however caused virus creators to change their objectives, and, from that moment on, they tried to infect as many computers as possible in the shortest time. Also, the introduction of Internet services -like e-banking or online shopping- brought in another change. Some virus creators started writing malicious codes not to infect computers, but, to steal confidential data associated to those services. Evidently, to achieve this, they needed viruses that could infect many computers silently. Their malicious labor was finally rewarded with the appearance, in 1986, of a new breed of malicious code generically called “Trojan Horse”, or simply “Trojan”. This first Trojan was called PC-Write and tried to pass itself off as the shareware version of a text processor. When run, the Trojan displayed a functional text processor on screen. The problem was that, while the user wrote, PC-Write deleted and corrupted files on the computers’ hard disk. After PC-Write, this type of malicious code evolved very quickly to reach the stage of present-day Trojans. Today, many of the people who design Trojans to steal data cannot be considered virus writers but simply thieves who, instead of using blowtorches or dynamite have turned to viruses to commit their crimes. Ldpinch.W or the Bancos or Tolger families of Trojans are examples of this
PART 5
Even though none of them can be left aside, some particular fields of computer science have played a more determinant role than others with regard to the evolution of viruses. One of the most influential fields has been the development of programming languages. These languages are basically a means of communication with computers in order to tell them what to do. Even though each of them has its own specific development and formulation rules, computers in fact understand only one language called "machine code". Programming languages act as an interpreter between the programmer and the computer. Obviously, the more directly you can communicate with the computer, the better it will understand you, and more complex actions you can ask it to perform. According to this, programming languages can be divided into "low and high level" languages, depending on whether their syntax is more understandable for programmers or for computers. A "high level" language uses expressions that are easily understandable for most programmers, but not so much for computers. Visual Basic and C are good examples of this type of language. On the contrary, expressions used by "low level" languages are closer to machine code, but are very difficult to understand for someone who has not been involved in the programming process. One of the most powerful, most widely used examples of this type of language is "assembler". In order to explain the use of programming languages through virus history, it is necessary to refer to hardware evolution. It is not difficult to understand that an old 8-bit processor does not have the power of modern 64-bit processors, and this of course, has had an impact on the programming languages used. In this and the next installments of this series, we will look at the different programming languages used by virus creators through computer history:
- Virus antecessors: Core Wars
As was already explained in the first chapter of this series, a group of programs called Core Wars, developed by engineers at an important telecommunications company, are considered the antecessors of current-day viruses. Computer science was still in the early stages and programming languages had hardly developed. For this reason, authors of these proto-viruses used a language that was almost equal to machine code to program them. Curiously enough, it seems that one of the Core Wars programmers was Robert Thomas Morris, whose son programmed -years later- the "Morris worm". This malicious code became extraordinarily famous since it managed to infect 6,000 computers, an impressive figure for 1988.
- The new gurus of the 8-bits and the assembler language.
The names Altair, IMSAI and Apple in USA and Sinclair, Atari and Commodore in Europe, bring memories of times gone by, when a new generation of computer enthusiasts "fought" to establish their place in the programming world. To be the best, programmers needed to have profound knowledge of machine code and assembler, as interpreters of high-level languages used too much run time. BASIC, for example, was a relatively easy to learn language which allowed users to develop programs simply and quickly. It had however, many limitations. This caused the appearance of two groups of programmers: those who used assembler and those who turned to high-level languages (BASIC and PASCAL, mainly). Computer aficionados of the time enjoyed themselves more by programming useful software than malware. However, 1981 saw the birth of what can be considered the first 8-bit virus. Its name was "Elk Cloner", and was programmed in machine code. This virus could infect Apple II systems and displayed a message when it infected a computer.
PART 6
Computer viruses evolve in much the same way as in other areas of IT. Two of the most important factors in understanding how viruses have reached their current level are the development of programming languages and the appearance of increasingly powerful hardware. In 1981, almost at the same time as Elk Kloner (the first virus for 8-bit processors) made its appearance, a new operating system was growing in popularity. Its full name was Microsoft Disk Operating System, although computer buffs throughout the world would soon refer to it simply as DOS.
DOS viruses
The development of MS DOS systems occurred in parallel to the appearance of new, more powerful hardware. Personal computers were gradually establishing themselves as tools that people could use in their everyday lives, and the result was that the number of PCs users grew substantially. Perhaps inevitably, more users also started creating viruses. Gradually, we witnessed the appearance of the first viruses and Trojans for DOS, written in assembler language and demonstrating a degree of skill on the part of their authors. Far less programmers know assembler language than are familiar with high-level languages that are far easier to learn. Malicious code written in Fortran, Basic, Cobol, C or Pascal soon began to appear. The last two languages, which are well established and very powerful, are the most widely used, particularly in their TurboC and Turbo Pascal versions. This ultimately led to the appearance of “virus families”: that is, viruses that are followed by a vast number of related viruses which are slightly modified forms of the original code. Other users took the less ‘artistic’ approach of creating destructive viruses that did not require any great knowledge of programming. As a result, batch processing file viruses or BAT viruses began to appear.
Win16 viruses
The development of 16-bit processors led to a new era in computing. The first consequence was the birth of Windows, which, at the time, was just an application to make it easier to handle DOS using a graphic interface. The structure of Windows 3.xx files is rather difficult to understand, and the assembler language code is very complicated, as a result of which few programmers initially attempted to develop viruses for this platform. But this problem was soon solved thanks to the development of programming tools for high-level languages, above all Visual Basic. This application is so effective that many virus creators adopted it as their ‘daily working tool’. This meant that writing a virus had become a very straightforward task, and viruses soon appeared in their hundreds. This development was accompanied by the appearance of the first Trojans able to steal passwords. As a result, more than 500 variants of the AOL Trojan family -designed to steal personal information from infected computers- were identified.
PART 7
This seventh edition on the history of computer viruses will look at how the development of Windows and Visual Basic has influenced the evolution of viruses, as with the development of these, worldwide epidemics also evolved such as the first one caused by Melissa in 1999. While Windows changed from being an application designed to make DOS easier to manage to a 32-bit platform and operating system in its own right, virus creators went back to using assembler as the main language for programming viruses. Versions 5 and 6 of Visual Basic (VB) were developed, making it the preferred tool, along with Borland Delphi (the Pascal development for the Windows environment), for Trojan and worm writers. Then, Visual C, a powerful environment developed in C for Windows, was adopted for creating viruses, Trojans and worms. This last type of malware gained unusual strength, taking over almost all other types of viruses. Even though the characteristics of worms have changed over time, they all have the same objective: to spread to as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. With time, Visual Basic became extremely popular and Microsoft implemented part of the functionality of this language as an interpreter capable of running script files with a similar syntax. At the same time as the Win32 platform was implemented, the first script viruses also appeared: malware inside a simple text file. These demonstrated that not only executable files (.EXE and .COM files) could carry viruses. As already seen with BAT viruses, there are also other means of propagation, proving the saying "anything that can be executed directly or through a interpreter can contain malware." To be specific, the first viruses that infected the macros included in Microsoft Office emerged. As a result, Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint become ways of spreading ‘lethal weapons’, which destroyed information when the user simply opened a document.
Melissa and self-executing worms
The powerful script interpreters in Microsoft Office allowed virus authors to arm their creations with the characteristics of worms. A clear example is Melissa, a Word macro virus with the characteristics of a worm that infects Word 97 and 2000 documents. This worm automatically sends itself out as an attachment to an e-mail message to the first 50 contacts in the Outlook address book on the affected computer. This technique, which has unfortunately become very popular nowadays, was first used in this virus which, in 1999, caused one of the largest epidemics in computer history in just a few days. In fact, companies like Microsoft, Intel or Lucent Technologies had to block their connections to the Internet due to the actions of Melissa. The technique started by Melissa was developed in 1999 by viruses like VBS/Freelink, which unlike its predecessor sent itself out to all the contacts in the address book on the infected PC. This started a new wave of worms capable of sending themselves out to all the contacts in the Outlook address book on the infected computer. Of these, the worm that most stands out from the rest is VBS/LoveLetter, more commonly known as ‘I love You’, which emerged in May 2000 and caused an epidemic that caused damage estimated at 10,000 million euros. In order to get the user’s attention and help it to spread, this worm sent itself out in an e-mail message with the subject ‘ILOVEYOU’ and an attached file called ‘LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.VBS’. When the user opened this attachment, the computer was infected. As well as Melissa, in 1999 another type of virus emerged that also marked a milestone in virus history. In November of that year, VBS/BubbleBoy appeared, a new type of Internet worm written in VB Script. VBS/BubbleBoy was automatically run without the user needing to click on an attached file, as it exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 5 to automatically run when the message was opened or viewed. This worm was followed in 2000 by JS/Kak.Worm, which spread by hiding behind Java Script in the auto-signature in Microsoft Outlook Express, allowing it to infect computers without the user needing to run an attached file. These were the first samples of a series of worms, which were joined later on by worms capable of attacking computers when the user is browsing the Internet.
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