LESSON 14

FROM THE HISTORY OF COMPUTER VIRUSES [1]

Task 1. Read and translate the text:

Задание 1. Прочитайте и переведите текст:

A bit of history

2 November 1988 Robert Morris younger (Robert Morris), a graduate student of an informatics faculty of Cornwall University (USA) infected a great amount of computers, connected to Internet network. This network unites machines of university centres, private companies and governmental agents, including National Aeronautics Space Administration, as well as some military scientific centres and labs.

4 November the author of the virus — Morris — come to FBI headquarters in Washington on his own. FBI has imposed a prohibition on all materials relating to the Morris virus.

22 January 1989 a court of jurors has acknowledged Morris guilty. If denunciatory verdict had been approved without modification, Morris would have been sentenced to 5 years of a prison and 250.000 dollars of fine. However, Morris' attorney Thomas Guidoboni immediately has lodged a protest and directed all papers to the Circuit Court with the petition to decline the decision of the court... Finally Morris was sentenced to 3 months of a prison and fine of 270 thousand dollars. Cornwall University carried a heavy loss, having excluded Morris from its members. The author had to take part in the liquidation of its own creation.

It is necessary to differentiate between reproducing programs and Trojan horses. Reproducing programs will not necessarily harm your system because they are aimed at producing as many copies (or somewhat-copies) of their own as possible by means of so-called agent programs or without their help. In the later case they are referred to as "worms".

Meanwhile Trojan programs aimed at causing harm or a damage to PC's. Certainly it's a usual practice, when they are a part of "tech-organism", but they have completely different functions.

A network worm has struck 6.200 machines that formed 7.3% computers to network. Among damaged things were NASA, LosAlamos National Lab, exploratory center VMS USA, California Technology Institute, and Wisconsin University (200 from 300 systems). According to "Wall Street Journal", a virus has infiltrated networks in Europe and Australia, where there were also registered events of blocking the computers. Here are some recalls of the event participants:

Symptom: hundreds or thousands of jobs start running on a UNIX system bringing response to zero.

Systems attacked: UNIX systems, 4.3BSD UNIX and variants send mail compiled with debug. This virus is spreading very quickly over the Milnet. Within the past 4 hours, it has hit > 10 sites across the country. Well over 50 sites have been hit. Most of these are "major" sites and gateways.

Method: Someone has written a program that uses a hole in SMTP Send mail utility. This utility can send a message into another program.

Apparently what the attacker did was this: he or she connected to send mail, issued the appropriate debug command and had a small C program compiled. This program took as an argument a host number and copied two programs — one ending in VAX. OS and the other ending in SunOS — and tried to load and execute them. In those cases where the load and execution succeeded, the worm did two things: spawn a lot of shells that did nothing but clog the process table and burn CPU cycles. It used both individual host files and any other remote hosts it could locate which it had a chance of connecting to. It may have done more: one of our machines changed super user password, but because of other factors we're not sure this worm did it.

As you see, there are different types of viruses, and they have already been separated into classes and categories. For instance: dangerous, harmless, and very dangerous. No destruction means a harmless one, tricks with system halts means a dangerous one, and finally with a devastating destruction means a very dangerous virus.

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

Задание 2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. What was the attacker?

2. Who infected a great amount of computers, connected to Internet network?

3. Who has imposed a prohibition on all material relating to the Morris virus?

4. When did Robert Morris infect a great amount of computers?

5. When did the author come to FBI headquarters in Washington on his own?

6. How many dollars would have been Morris sentenced?

7. Why do not Reproducing programs harm your system?

8. Why do the viruses evolve as if they were alive?

Task 3. Choose the right variant:

Задание 3. Выберите правильный вариант:

1. This …. unites machines of university centers, private companies and governmental agents.

a) engineer

b) network

c) man

2. Network worm has struck … machines.

a) 6500

b) 6200

c) 6300

3.... 1988 Robert Morris in feted a great amount of computers, connected to Internet network.

a) 1 January

b) 8 March

c) 2 November

4.... the author of the virus-Morris-come to FBI headquarters in Washington on his own

a) 22 June

b) 17 September

c) 4 November

Task 4. Find the sentences with the words and word — combinations given below in the text:

Задание 4. Найдите в тексте предложения, содержащие нижеследующие слова и выражения:

• blocking the computers

• to send mail

• Morris virus

• computer environment

• an integral part of the virus

• a network worm

• to decline the decision of court

• reproducing programs

Task 5. Complete the following sentences corresponding to the contents of the text:

Задание 5. Закончите предложения:

1..... infected a great amount of computers, connected to Internet network.

2. According... were also registered events of blocking the computers.

3. It is necessary to differentiate between....

4.... they are a part of "tech-organism", but they have completely different functions.

5.... tricks with system halts means a dangerous one, and finally with a devastating destruction means a very dangerous virus.

6. This virus is spreading very quickly....

7. Apparently what the attacker did was this....

8. If denunciatory verdict had been approved without modification....

9. It may have done more....

Task 6. Say whether the statements given below are true or false:

Задание 6. Определите истинность или ложность следующих предложений:

1. 2 November 1888 Robert Morris older, graduate student of information faculty of Cornwall University infected a small amount of computers, connected to Internet work.

2. Network worm had struck 3200 machine that formed 7,9% computers to network, and has show, that UNIX okay too.

3. Symptom: hundreds or thousands of jobs start running on a UNIX system bring response to two.

4. This virus is not spreading very quickly over the Milnet.

5. Within the past 10 hours, it have hit > 10 sites across the country, both Arpaned and Milnet sites.

6. Apparently what the attacker do this: he or she connected to send mail, issue the appropriate debug command, and had a big C program compiled.

7. 22 January the author of the virus came to FBI headquarters in Washington on his own.

8. 22 January 1989 a court of jurors has acknowledged Morris guilty.

9. It was necessary to differentiate between reproduce program and Trojan horses.

Task 7. Make up the sentences:

Задание 7. Сопоставьте левую и правую колонки так, чтобы получились предложения:

• This network unites   • Viruses are an area of   • Viruses seem to be the only alive organisms   • Reproducing programs will not harm your own system • Network worm has struck

• because they are aimed at producing as many copies of their own as possible. • 6200 machines that formed 7.3% computers to network. • pure programming, and carry intellectual functions on protection from being found. • machines of university centers, private companies and governmental agents. • in the computer environment.

Task 8. Make the sentences negative and interrogative:

Задание 8. Преобразуйте следующие предложения в вопросительную и отрицательную форму:

1. Network worm has struck 6.200 machines that formed 7.3% computers to network.

2. This virus is spreading very quickly over the Milnet.

3. Well over 50 sites have been hit.

4. Most of these are "major" sites and gateways.

5. This utility can send a message into another program.

6. FBI has imposed a prohibition on all materials relating to the Morris virus.

7. Morris would have been sentences to 5 years of prison and 250.000 $ of fine.

8. The author had to take part in the liquidation of its own creation.

9. They have to fight for survival in complex conditions of conflicting computer systems.

10. Destructive actions are not an integral part of the virus by default.

Task 9. Translate from Russian into English:

Задание 9. Переведите с русского языка на английский:

1. 2 ноября 1988 Роберт Моррис младший, выпускник факультета информатики, разработал огромное число компьютеров, подключенных к сети Интернет.

2. Эта сеть объединяет машины учебных центров, частных компаний, государственных служащих.

3. Сетевой червь поразил 6200 машин, что составляет 7,3% всех компьютеров сети.

4. 4 ноября автор вируса Моррис приехал в Вашингтон лично.

5. 22 Января 1989 года суд присяжных признал вину Морриса.

6. Компьютерный вирус это исполнительный код, способный самовоспроизводиться.

7. Вирусы кажутся очень живучими организмами в компьютерной среде.

8. Существуют различные виды вирусов, которые делятся на классы и категории.