Computer Security coursework 3

1. Computer Securitycoursework 3 Dr Alexei Vernitski

2. Aims of the coursework • Learn more about: • Computer viruses, ransomware and other malware • Files and file systems • Interpreted programming languages, in comparison with compiled programming languages • Security of web browsers • Security of operating systems • All this is useful not only for understanding computer security, but for any career in information technology

3. Two parts of the assignment • Write a ‘virus’ in Python(make sure that you only imitate the behaviour of a virus and do not actually infect files – see details below) • Write a description of the Europol virus

4. What to submit? • Submit a ZIP file containing two files: • A file with Python code, for Part 1 • A short report, for Part 2 • Please submit one file, and please submit a ZIP file , it makes opening your assignment easier for me • Please include your name and registration number in your submission in some way, it makes entering marks easier for me

5. What does your code need to do exactly? • Your code should be based on my file target.py in the sense that it should contain and execute correctly all the original code in target.py and in addition to this, also should contain a ‘virus’ code • The ‘virus’ code should do the following: • List all Python files in the current folder. This list imitates the list of files which would be infected by the virus. Do not include the file which is being executed now (because it is already ‘infected’); note that your code should not assume that the file’s name is still target.py • Read the code of the ‘virus’ from the ‘infected’ file and print it on the screen. This output imitates the code that would be added to each Python file to infect it.

6. How shall I mark your code? • I shall run your code and see if it prints a correct list of files and the correct ‘virus’ code. If it does, you get 100%. • If it does not, I shall look at the code and allocate some partial marks according to the list on the previous slide.

7. Programming • I attempted the coursework and wrote my solution in Python • My complete ‘virus’ code contains 9 lines • It took me approximately 20 minutes to write it • You may need up to 1 hour to complete the assignment if you need to learn how to list files in Python, how to get the name of the Python file being executed, etc.

8. Part 2: A report • You may have heard about so-called Europol virus, which recently affected many computers.  • Answer the following five questions about the Europol virus • Answer each question in one or two sentences, in sufficient detail to demonstrate your understanding

9. Questions to answer • Is the Europol virus really a virus, or some other form of malware? • How and when does a computer get infected by the Europol virus? • What operating systems can be infected by the Europol virus? (Think of Windows 7, Mac, Windows tablets, Android tablets, etc.) • How does one get rid of the Europol virus? (For example, can the standard antivirus programs remove it?) • Assess the quality of advice you have found while you looked for answers to the previous questions. Was it easy or difficult to find an authoritative advice?

10. Labs • Before the submission date of each piece of coursework, we shall have a lab on Thursday • The purpose of the lab is: • to help you to write your code, in case you have any difficulties • to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your code to me

11. No collaboration • This is an individual assignment • I shall look for signs of collaboration and plagiarism