No Vaccine Found for Computer Virus, Experts Say

Despite ongoing efforts to protect computers against unauthorized invasion by “viruses,” experts agree that they have been about as successful as doctors seeking to ward off the common cold.

And there is little on the horizon to offer much hope.

“We will have vaccines in the future to prevent against the known strains. Unfortunately, people who create these viruses will become increasingly clever,” said Steven Hicks, chairman of the board of United Software Security, a Washington-area computer security company. “We will never have a 100% shield.”

Computer experts commonly use medical metaphors to describe the damaging programs--sometimes playful, sometimes pernicious--that are smuggled into computers without the knowledge of their users.

The outlook is hardly cheery for the millions of computer users worldwide who depend on these machines to do everything from administering national defense systems to publishing a PTA newsletter. And according to several experts, personal computers--the most popular machines in the world--are the most vulnerable to attacks from a virus.

Yet, much like following Mom’s advice to get lots of rest, eat right and take vitamins, computer users can follow practices and install some relatively inexpensive software to boost the immune systems of their machines.

Because computer viruses spread from programs--actual sets of computer operating instructions--the whole idea is to make sure that only the purest data and software enter your computer. However, because all computer users rely on over-the-counter software, programs from the office, friends and collegaues, bugs can easily enter the system undetected. And the situation is further complicated when users sign on to electronic bulletin boards and networks to share information and software.

A careful user can guard against the most obvious sources of infection by using only top-quality software, sharing data files and programs only with trusted friends and colleagues, installing data-copying systems in the machine and installing special security software.

“Don’t share disks. Don’t copy software,” one computer buff wrote on an electronic bulletin board recently. “Don’t let anyone touch your machine. Just say no.”

If the advice sounds more like Mom’s safe-sex lecture, that analogy isn’t far off the mark, either, according to a spokesman for one of the government agencies hit by this week’s fast-spreading virus.

P.J. Fenrick, from NASA’s Ames Research Center said people who have computers linked to national networks need to develop “safe computer sex” to allow computers to connect to one another without spreading a virus.

But according to Phil Sih, a Silicon Valley operator of a new electronic bulletin board, most networks aren’t prepared to screen the quality of information posted with these systems. “Networks aren’t in the business of determining what is good or bad quality information,” Sih says. “They can inadvertently serve as a conduit for corrupted material.”

According to Sih, quasi-government networks such as the Arpanet, which was corrupted in the latest virus infestation, are operated on a kind of honor system, with participants sharing an unwritten agreement “not to do stuff like this.”

“Everyone knows there are holes in every system,” Sih says. “The whole idea is not to exploit them.”

Another defense is one of the growing number of software programs designed to alert users to the presence of a tainted piece of software. Programs such as “Corporate Vaccine” from Foundation Ware, Flushot Plus from Software Concepts Design and Dr. Panda Utilities from Panda Systems, offer users a way to screen new programs and data.

However, they are far from foolproof.

“Buying a cure will not protect you from the next (virus),” says Fred Cohen, a computer science professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Further, the so-called vaccines can be cumbersome to a computer’s operation. “Vaccines take up processing time. You can get so loaded with vaccines that you can’t get any processing done,” said one expert.