Recognizing the Multipartite Virus
Being infected with a
virus can be a real drag ... literally.
A virus can tremendously falter the performance of your computer,
overwrite important files and eventually make your programs unaccessible. The infection is liable to spread so widely
that normal activity such as surfing the internet may become impossible.
Viruses are composed of
many different classifications, often termed by the areas they corrupt as well
as their method of infection. Most are
placed into the categories of file infectors, boot infectors and system
infectors; all known to inflict a great amount of damage. Also common are macro viruses, which tend to
be less harmful than other types. They
are known to infect word processing applications by inserting unwanted text or
phrases. One of the most dangerous and
complex infections threatening computer users is the multipartite virus, also
referred to as the multi-part of the hybrid virus.
The multipartite virus
combines the characteristics of more than one type which gives it the ability
to infect boot system sectors as well as program files. It often infects the section on a hard drive
that contains data which instructs the machine on how to boot up. Whenever the computer starts, the virus is
automatically distributed throughout the system. This enables it to spread and infect program
files, causing a user to unknowingly invoke the virus, resulting in more
destructive payloads being delivered into the system.
Ghostball, the first
multipartite virus, was discovered by a member of the Icelandic company, FRISK
Software International Corporation.
Later variants include the Emperor, Tequila and Anthrax.
Signs of the Virus
Although the effects of
some infections are subtle and go unnoticed, a multipartite virus tends to work
fast. Here is what you should look
for:
• the controllers for your drives are
no longer present in the "Device Manager"
• you receive constant messages stating
that virtual memory is low
• the content on your screen looks as
if it's melting
• the size of your applications and
files keep changing
• your hard drive reformats itself
• the extensions of your word processing
documents are modified from DOC. to DOT.
• your programs take much longer to
load than before or will not open at all
Security Measures against the Multipartite Virus
A
multipartite virus is often quite difficult to eliminate. If the infected boot sectors are disinfected
but the corrupted files are not, those sectors will be re-infected within a
matter of minutes. If the infected
program files are cleaned but the virus remains present in the boot sectors,
those files will eventually be infected again.
Because of it's multi-infectious nature, it will repeatedly infect a
host system if not completely eliminated.
Because of this, many security experts have suggested that the best
defense against this virus is prevention opposed to a cure. They also recommend that users practice
various security measures by doing the following:
- install
quality anti-virus software
- make sure
virus definitions of the scanner are regularly updated
- never
open an attachment from an unsolicited message
- taking
caution when surfing the internet and downloading files from a questionable
website
