计算机英语 教学课件 作者 杨芸 主编 杨 蕾 李连弟 副主编 unit12.pptVIP

Unit twelve COMPUTER VIRUSES COMPUTER VIRUSES? Overview The techniques developed to protect single computers and network-linked computer systems from accidental or intentional harm are called computer security. Such harm includes destruction of computer hardware and software, physical loss of data, and the deliberate invasion of databases by unauthorized individuals. Data may be protected by such basic methods as locking up terminals and replicating data in other storage facilities. Most sophisticated methods include limiting data access by requiring the user to have an encoded card or to supply a password. Such procedures can apply to the computer-data system as whole or may be pinpointed for particular information banks or programs. Data are frequently ranked in computer files according to degree of confidentiality. Operating systems and programs may also incorporate built-in safeguards, and data may be encoded in various ways to prevent unauthorized persons from interpreting or even copying the material. The encoding system most widely used in the United States is the Data Encryption Standard (DES) designed by IBM. Very-large-scale computer systems, for example, the U.S. militarys Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET), may be broken up into smaller subsystems for security purposes, but smaller systems in government and industry are more prone to system-wide invasions. At the level of personal computers, security possibilities are fairly minimal. Most invasions of computer systems are for international or corporate spying or sabotage, but computer hackers may take the penetration, of protected databanks as a challenge, often with no object in mind other than accomplishing a technological feat. Of growing concern is the deliberate implantation in computer programs of worms or viruses that, if undetected, may progressively destroy databases and other software. Such infected programs have appeared