Controlling Against Malicious and Destructive Programs
Malicious and destructive programs are responsible for millions of dollars of corporate losses annually. The losses are measured in terms of data corruption and destruction degraded computer performance, hardware destruction, violations of privacy, and the personnel time devoted to repairing the damage. This class of programs includes viruses, worms, logic bombs, back doors, and Trojan horses. Because these have become popular press terms in recent years, we will not devote space at this point to define them. The appendix to this chapter, however, contains a detailed discussion of this material.
Threats from destructive programs can be substantially reduced through a combination of technology controls and administrative procedures. The following examples are relevant to most operating systems.