Anti-virus: not the universal solution

By BK Khaitan

This article is not about what a computer virus is, how it infects a computer and what damage it can cause to computer programs, data files etc. Enough has been written about these topics. The question is - why should there be a virus program in the first place?

The first virus program was called "stone virus" was written by 2 crazy Pakistanis 20 years back and infected computers worldwide. The motive was simple. Create panic. This opened the floodgate of virus programs thereafter. Today we have more than 10,000 known viruses and everyday new viruses are coming in. So are anti virus programs to detect and clean them. This reminds me of an old Charlie Chaplin classic film "The kid" in which the master filmmaker who happens to be a poor man, in order to earn his living comes up with a grand idea. He hires a small boy to break the glass panes of homes by throwing stones at them. The boy is trained to do this job with clinical precision and great accuracy. While the boy does his job, Chaplin waits at some distance away from the house. He then proceeds to the main gate of the house and inquires if any repair work is required. The owner of the house by now having noticed the damage immediately hires him to do the repair work.

The moral of the story is that the glass panes are broken with a clear cut motive and the motive is to create a situation of emergency for the house-owner to repair the glass panes and in the process earn money by repairing the broken glass panes.

The point I am trying to make is that unless virus programs are written that can cause considerable damage to the corporate by destroying databases, programs, operating systems etc, no corporate company would be interested in investing money in buying anti virus programs. An anti virus program today costs anywhere between Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500 per user license depending on the brand. That means if the company has 400 PCs, it will have to invest roughly Rs 10 lakh for 400 licensed copies of anti virus software. The point to be noted here is that the license to use software is not for unlimited period but for a limited period say 2 to 3 years.

Besides the cost, the mere fact that an anti virus software has to constantly scan computer memory to be able to detect virus, it has to reside permanently in memory draining valuable resources of computers in the process in terms of memory capacity, processing speed etc. To tackle this problem, company is forced to upgrade its machines resulting in further investment. The hardware companies stand to gain in this process.

Writing virus programs takes time, effort and intelligence. Probably it is more difficult to write virus programs than to write anti virus programs. Virus programs are therefore developed with a definite motive and that is to earn money by selling anti virus programs. There seems to be a nexus between developer of virus programs and companies engaged in selling anti virus programs. The needle of suspicion automatically goes to companies who stand to lose maximum if virus programs are eliminated. For the end users, the solution does not lie in detecting and cleaning viruses but in finding out and punishing those who are found guilty in developing and spreading virus programs. New viruses have to stop coming in the market else the rate at which the new viruses are coming in, a time will come when the companies will have to keep aside large percentage of IT spending in tackling virus related issues which is an avoidable expense.

New technology is required to detect the source of origin of virus so as to catch the culprit. Writing virus programs and spreading it worldwide is as dangerous as starting biological warfare and must be considered a serious crime by the international community. The speed with which virus can spread in the international network of computers is difficult to calculate. International community must frame laws to be able to give maximum capital punishment to those found guilty. Unless stringent action is taken at international level for this crime, there is no way we can stop this menace threatening the entire corporate world.

(The author is the Chief Manger for IT at RPG Cables Ltd. Views expressed here is those of the author and CIOL does not necessarily subscribe to the same.)