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A sociological paper on viruses
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Computer security chiefs have stepped up their campaign against the
threat of computer attack after a series of computer viruses hit firms
earlier this month. Rolls Royce, British Rail, the House of Commons have
all been inflitrated, and a security expert has warned computer firms to
brace themselves for further attacks. They fear a new worldwide wave of
viruses is hitting computer systems and warn IT chiefs to step up
security procedures. Rolls Royce says it has experienced a near epidemic
of viruses in 1991, with four separate incidents to date, compared to
six in the whole of the last year. The virus spread through Rolls
Royce's PC network, and although each one was isolated and destroyed,
security chiefs had to scan thousands of disks to eliminate one rogue
program. "This is the main problem with computer viruses - once they are
in your system it takes a vast amount of man hours to clean them up,"
says Mike Roberts, Rolls Royce's computer director. Roberts believes the
viruses were brought in on disks by employees doing course work at
university or polytechnic. "Viruses have become a real worry, especially
when you have a PC in every office in the company," says a Rolls Royce
spokesman. British Rail has also had up to seven virus attacks in the
past three months, and it is believed the House of Commons was hit
earlier this month. Bob Wane, of Bedford company security firm ASK-GT,
says it is hard to determine how much damage has been done by each of
these viruses, but says the House of Commons virus "was isolated
relatively quickly and purged from the system". Recent surveys have
shown the virus threat is on the increase. A National Computing Centre
probe of 500 members revealed that 34% had been hit at some time by a
virus. London and the South-West are the worst affected, with up to 41%
infiltrated, compared to 26% in the North. But encouragingly, 80% of
those who were infected by viruses managed to locate the problem and
remedial action. The threat has forced insurance giant Lloyds to include
cover against virus attacks in its Lloyds Electronic and Computer Crime
policy. But to ensure cover, firms must prove that they have taken
strict security procedures. The new policy agreement also provides cover
against forged faxes and electronic fraud. Security chiefs, however,
have taken heart that the virus problem has been confined mainly to PC
networks, and has not yet hit mainframe sites.
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This articial orginally appeared in the Febuary 25-March 10 issue of Computer
Talk. (C) Reed Publishing 1991.
Typed up by Night Ranger of (I)nternational (C)rime (S)yndicate.
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