Information on the Boot Sector Virus

1. Information on the Boot Sector Virus

2. Table of Contents • Websites • Web Hosting Service Providers • Computer Virus • Signs of a Computer Virus Attack • Boot Sector Virus • Boot Sector Virus’ Effects • Boot Sector Virus’ Names • Conclusion

3. Websites • In this day and age when the Internet has become a very important part of our lives, we visit many websites for different purposes, on a daily basis. A website is made up of a collection of related web pages and content and is located under a single domain name, as well as identified by a common domain name.

4. Web Hosting Service Providers • Every website that we visit over the Internet is accessible because it is hosted on the web server of some web hosting company. These web hosting service provider companies, which are also called web hosts, lease server space to store the files of websites and provide the necessary services and the technologies that deliver those files to make the website accessible to online viewers. • When one refers to the “Best Windows Hosting Company” or the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”, or even the “Best Hosting Company”, one is referring to a particular kind of web hosting service provider which excels in the service provided by it.

5. Computer Virus • A computer virus is a type of a malicious code that has been designed to spread from one host device to another, in order to alter the way a computer operates. This virus can replicate itself. It causes unexpected damage to the system software by corrupting or destroying its data. In order to execute its code, a virus operates by inserting or attaching itself to a legitimate program or document that supports macros. After attaching itself successfully to a program, file, or document, a virus will lie dormant until circumstances cause the computer or the device to execute its code. Any virus can infect a computer or a device, if its user runs the infected program on that computer or device. When the infected program is run, it in turn causes the virus’ code to be executed.

6. Signs of a Computer Virus Attack • Some of the signs that indicate the presence of a computer virus on a system are mentioned below, in no particular order. • Frequent crashes- A virus can cause major damage to the computer’s hard drive. This results in the device freezing or crashing. It may also prevent the device from turning on. • Frequent pop-up windows- Pop-ups might encourage the device user to visit unusual sites. Or these might lure him into downloading antivirus or other software programs. • Changes to the user’s homepage- The user’s usual homepage might change. Additionally, it won’t be possible to reset it. • Mass emails being sent from the user’s email account- The user’s account might be in the cybercriminal’s control and/or emails can be sent in his name from another infected computer. • Unknown programs start, when the device is turned on- The user becomes aware of the unfamiliar program on starting the device or by checking his computer’s list of active applications. • Unusual activities happen, such as password changes- This could prevent the user from logging into his device. • Unusually slow computer performance- A sudden change of processing speed signals a computer virus infection.

7. Boot Sector Virus • Every time that a computer starts, a small program called MBR runs on it. The MBR is usually placed on the first sector of the hard disk. Its function is to control the boot sequence and determine the partition from which the computer boots. • The first Boot Sector Virus was created by Richard Skrenta in 1981. It was called Elk Cloner. A Boot sector Virus infects or substitutes its own code for either the DOS boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a computer. The infected code runs when the system is booted from an infected disk. Once it is loaded, it will infect other disks when accessed on the infected computer. The MBR executes every time a computer is started. Hence, this type of a virus is very dangerous. Once the boot code on the drive is infected, the virus will load into memory every time the device is started. From memory, this virus can spread to every disk that is read by the system. Boot sector viruses are usually very difficult to get rid of. This is because most antivirus programs cannot clean the MBR when Windows is running. Usually, it takes bootable antivirus disks to properly remove a boot sector virus. • Boot sector viruses attack at a BIOS level. These use DOS (Disk Operating System) commands to spread to other disks. That is why these started to become less frequent, since the emergence of Windows 95 (which hardly made any use of DOS instructions). Nowadays programs known as “bootkits” are available, which write their code to the MBR. This is a way for loading early in the boot process and then hiding the actions of malware that are running under Windows. A point to note is, these are not designed to infect removable media.

8. Boot Sector Virus’ Effects • A Boot Sector Virus can execute the following functions successfully. These are mentioned in no particular order. • Shift or overwrite a disk’s original boot sector • Replace the boot sector with this virus • Generate bad disk sectors

9. Boot Sector Virus’ Names • Some of the names of the Boot Sector Viruses are mentioned below in chronological order. • Elk Cloner (Created in 1982) • Brain (Created in 1986) • Stoned (Created in 1987) • Parity Boot virus (Detected in 1980s) • Denzuko (Detected in 1988) • Ping-Pong virus (aka Italian) (Detected in 1988) • Lamer Exterminator (Detected in 1989)

10. Boot Sector Virus’ Names • Michelangelo (Detected in 1991) • NoInt (Detected in 1991) • AntiCMOS (aka Lenart) (Detected in 1994) • Crazy_Boot (Detected in 1995) • AntiEXE (Detected in 1995) • Angelina (Detected in 1995) • Barrotes (aka Boot-347) (Detected in 1997)

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12. Conclusion As can be clearly understood from the information provided here and to conclude, a boot sector virus embeds its starting code in a storage device’s boot sector. This virus is a type of a malware that moves into the system memory when the infected device attempts to read and execute the program in the boot sector. This is the way in which the Boot Sector Virus takes control of the basic operations of a computer. Once in memory, the boot sector virus can easily spread to other drives, which include floppy and network drives.

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