A computer virus is a programme (small or big) which sits on a local host, and is incapable of running independently of that host. This host can be an Operating System or an Application--which is already installed on the PC. For example, a virus may be written in VBScript and sit on CScript or WScript in Windows XP.
Invariably, the virus is scripted by a person who has insider knowledge of the structure of the targeted OS/Application.
Hence, the easiest and most effective method to banish the viruses is:-
1) After the installation of each such host, it must be automatically monitored by a built-in security routine which launches a Dialogue-Box before any script (other than the ones which officially came with the said OS/Application as ‘OEM’) is run; and the said routine asks the User whether or not to run the said script.
2) The said Dialogue-Box should respond to either the key-board strokes or to mouse-clicks—that, too, only after certain characters (which the system will randomly generate) are visually recognised by the User and are manually typed-in by him/her.
3) The above exercise should be repeated the second time the said script is run—so that an error inadvertently committed the first time, may be corrected now.
4) After the installation of any new OS/Application on the PC, and after the Steps 1-3 (above) are taken for the first time on that PC, the system should generate a unique ID Number (based on the OS/Application Registration Number and the presence of certain hardware items installed on the PC), and attach this Number as a check-string to the said script.
5) Thereafter, every new script--using the said local host on that PC, which has undergone Steps 1-3, will be automatically assigned the said unique check-string.
6) All scripts to which the said check-string is assigned, will run without further prompting.
7) This will prevent un-solicited & un-tested scripts from running automatically on your PC.
8) Every OS should automatically partition your Hard Disk into two Drives. The second Drive will be a small one and will house the ‘SafeMode’ version of the OS. This drive can be used for retrieving your documents if, God forbid, your main drive is infected or the main OS crashes.
9) At Step 1 above, the OS/Application will automatically create a copy of the said script and save it in a separate folder in the second drive. However, the same will be automatically deleted if Step-2 has been executed without any hitch.
10) If the said script has come as an attachment to an e-mail message, then it should first be saved, details of the sender/author of the said mail be automatically saved in the ‘Properties’ data of the said file, and then only it be allowed to run. These details will help in tracking the offender and bringing him to book in accordance with the criminal law.
In case the said file is downloaded form the web, then the web-site address etc should be automatically included in the ‘Properties’ data.
11) In the case of a virus-infection in the main Drive, the User simply re-starts into the second drive, launches the Utility called “Automatic Error Reporter”--supplied by the Architect/Designer of the said OS/Application, and the said Utility/Tool uploads the said folder as well. This will enable the Architect/Designer of the OS/Application to analyse the said virus, and publish appropriate Warnings/Notices at its official web-site, and to take legal action against the author/sender of the said virus because this amounts to causing malicious injury to the reputation of the Architect/Designer/Vendor and wrongful loss to the User.
Secondly, the User can--via this second Drive, retrieve his documents which he/she had saved on the main Drive. The User may need these documents urgently--before the expert help arrives.
Thirdly, from this small drive the User can access the Internet with a view to find out the ways & means of removing the said virus or for coming out of the said crash.
Happy computing!
URGENT CAUTION:
The following needs the urgent consideration, please, of all those who provide free webservers for uploading and storing files:-
By uploading any midi-music file (say, ‘abc’) onto the website of “xyz” on the geocities’ server, and then inserting a particular script in Yahoo! Mail>Options>Signatures>Rich Text...HTML source, one can add music to his/her outgoing mails. This script is given below but can be seen only in the HTML mode:-
Though the receiver of the mail will hear the music, yet this syntax will be invisible to him/her.
Now, my apprehension, please:-
If a similar script is used to access & run a file stored on a remote server and that file contains a virus, then neither Windows’ existing Anti-virus Applications (e.g. Malicious Scripts Tool) nor Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus nor the user can detect the same. THIS NEEDS LOOKING INTO ON AN URGENT BASIS, PLEASE.
Similarly, the use of vb scripts—which run on the ScriptHost (Windows) also need to be scanned before these are run on the pc.