Preview

Virus hunters

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
809 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Virus hunters
Introduction to Management

Managing the Virus Hunters
“Imagine what life would be like if your product were never finished, if your work were never done, if your market shifted 30 times a day. The computervirus hunters at Symantec Corp. don’t have to imagine. That’s the reality of their daily work life. At the company’s Response Lab in Santa Monica,
California, described as the “dirtiest of all our networks at Symantec”, software analysts collect viruses and other suspicious code and try to figure out how they work so the company can provide security updates to its customers. There’s even a hazardous materials box by the door to the lab, marked DANGER, where they put ah the discs, tapes, and hard drives with the nasty viruses that need to be completely disposed of. Symantec’s situation may seem unique, but the company, which makes content and network security software for both consumers and businesses, reflects the realities facing many organizations today: quickly shifting customer expectations and continuously emerging global competitors that have drastically shortened product life cycles. Managing talented people in such an environment can be quite challenging as well. Vincent Weafer, a native of lreland, has been the leader of Symantec’s virus hunting team since 1999.
Back then, he said, “There were less than two dozen people, and nothing really happened. We’d see maybe five new viruses a day and they would spread in a matter of months, not minutes.” Now,
Symantec’s virus hunters around the world deal with some 20,000 virus samples each month, not ah of which are unique, stand-alone viruses. To make the hunters’ jobs even more interesting, computer attacks are increasingly being spread by criminals wanting to steal information, whether corporate data or personal user account information that can be used in fraud. Dealing with these critical and timesensitive issues requires special talents. The response center team is a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Nipah Virus causes severe illness. A person with this infection will get a respiratory disease, a term that includes extreme conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gaseous exchange possible in organisms, and includes conditions of the upper respiratory tract, trachea, bronchi, alveoli, pleura and the nerves and muscles of breathing. (Source c)…

    • 117 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms. A virus is a small parasite that cannot reproduce by itself. Once it infects a susceptible cell, however, a virus can direct the cell to produce many more viruses. Viruses can infect all types of life forms, such as animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Virus Quiz

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A virus may not kill a host cell but may become inactive for a period…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shingle Virus Analysis

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page

    The shingle virus is not as contagious as the chicken pox but is composed of the same virus called the varicella zoster virus. In saying that, only people who have had the chicken pox are the only people that can get the shingles; this is because when a person gets chickenpox, the virus varicella hids and then develops into the zoster herpes virus. If you have shingles, however, you can spread the virus varicella and give another person the chickenpox. The shingles can be spread by the vesicular fluids that come out of the blisters caused by the herpes rash. In other words, “person-to-person transmission occurs via direct contact with vesicular fluids” (Madison LK 2015) if you have not had the chicken pox or have a weak immune system.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Task 3: Rubeola Virus

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Rubeola, or measles, is a communicable disease that is highly contagious and easily spread from person to person through close physical contact or direct contact with infected bodily secretions. “Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family” ("Measles," 2013). Paramyxoviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that infect respiratory cells. If an infected individual coughs or sneezes they expel mucous membrane cells within their secretions. The virus stays active and therefore contagious for up to 2 hours in the air and on surfaces. People can contract the illness by touching contaminated surfaces and then transferring the infected…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Viruses & Bacteria

    • 1009 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. Which antibiotic was the most effective? The most effective antibiotic was Chloramphenicol. Chloramphenicol is used against serious infections such as typhoid fever. This antibiotic produced a zone of inhibition of 29 millimeters. This demonstrates that chloramphenicol is the most effective antibiotic because the bacteria were the most sensitive to it.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even if Kaspersky Lab’s revenue greatly and constantly increase since it was founded, it doesn’t perform in the same way in each branch of the anti-virus product market. This market can be segmented in different ways. First, it differs in the kind of client, depending if it is for consumers or for businesses. Products supply, distribution, marketing and prices are very different between both markets. Kaspersky Lab performs better in consumer market (3rd biggest vendor of IT security software in the world in 2010) than in the corporate one (world 5th largest…

    • 872 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Variola Virus

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Variola virus otherwise known as the Small pox is an enveloped protected DNA containing virus that causes severe illness. Small pox has a history dating back to prehistory times. It is believed to have appeared around 10,000 BC in northeast Africa. Evidence was suggested by medical examination of mummies ; their skin appeared have contain skin lesions resembling those ones that have had small pox. The infection of the variola virus seemed uncontainable during the prehistory times and even during known history dating back to the 18th century. The clearest record for the study of the virus dates back to the well -known Microbiologist Edward Jenner. Because the disease was almost 100% fatal there were scientist searching for ways to perhaps…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Solution Flash Memory Inc

    • 2246 Words
    • 28 Pages

    competitors, its sales life cycle is short, usually only six years. In order to fix this risk,…

    • 2246 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Simplex Virus

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page

    The herpes simplex virus causes genital herpes. There are two types of herpes infections. simplex virus 1, and herpes simplex virus 2. However, the incidence of genital herpes caused by herpes simplex virus 1 is increasing. Herpes simplex virus 1 or the cold sore, which can cause genital herpes through oral-genital contact, and herpes simplex virus 2, usually associated with genital infections. The virus is transmitted from an infected person to another during sexual contact. The symptoms and treatment of both types are the same. It is important to notice that type 1 may affect the genital area, and equally type 2 may produce a sore in the mouth area as well (Yancey, p.45). The first episode of genital herpes is described by the development…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Norwalk Virus

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As the summer season is in full gear now a particular virus is looming in the…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brainia Essay FirstDraft

    • 601 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Interestingly enough, less than half, 40% (Clearswift, 2003) of employers surveyed educate their employees about viruses. Since employees are rarely informed about the risks involved with Internet misuse, the number of e-risk incidences continue to rise. According to Bickford (2006) “many personal computer users feel they must install accessory programs that complicate the normal processes associated with the retrieval of web based information”; thus creating a technical support burden. Furthermore “most employers fail to see attacks as a people problem as well as a technical challenge.” Assurex and Clearswift (2003). With workplace internet use on the rise, many users have found ways to circumvent firewalls leaving employers susceptible to viruses and malware.…

    • 601 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Virus

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There is no precise definition of what separates the living from the non-living. One definition might be the point at which an entity becomes self-aware. In this sense, someone who has had severe head trauma may be classified as brain dead. In this case, the body and brain are still functioning on a base level and there is definitely metabolic activity in all of the cells that make up the larger organism, but it is presumed that there is no self-awareness so the person is classified as brain dead. On the other end of the spectrum, a different criterion for defining life would be the ability to move a genetic blueprint into future generations, thereby regenerating your likeness. In the second, more simplistic definition, viruses are definitely alive. They are undeniably the most efficient entities on this planet at propagating their genetic information.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As companies increasingly rely on the data contained on their computer systems, threats to the data are also growing. Threats to data, or to information, can come in the form of a breach of confidentiality, a violation of integrity, or a denial of availability. These threats can come from various sources including computer hackers with malicious intent, natural or unnatural disasters, the lack of security policies, the failure to enforce security policies and computer viruses. Computer viruses pose as serious a threat to data as can a malicious hacker. In order to thoroughly protect a company’s information, one must focus on protecting against all possible threats, including computer viruses. Although infection of computer systems by a virus is generally unintentional, the possibility of infection is real and without the proper protection, imminent. Computer viruses are designed to spread from one file to another, from one program to another, from one machine to another, and even from one network to another. Viruses threaten the integrity and availability of data. Data have become the backbone of most companies today, and therefore any threat to a company’s data cannot be tolerated. Time, resources and money must be invested to protect a company against the harmful and destructive intrusion of computer viruses. At first glance it would appear that protecting computers from viruses is a relatively simple task. On the surface this task involves selecting an anti-virus software package, installing it, and running the virus scan, rendering the computer virus-free. Unfortunately the process can be quite intricate, and require as much time and effort spent planning as on implementation. An enterprise wide anti-virus initiative involves numerous tasks, which at a high level can be broken into the following phases: planning, implementation and maintenance. Other phases may be identified for any given project and should be included as…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Related Literature

    • 13314 Words
    • 54 Pages

    In view of all the deadly computer viruses that have been spreading lately, Weekend Update would like to remind you: when you link up to another computer, you’re linking up to every computer that the computer has ever linked up to.…

    • 13314 Words
    • 54 Pages
    Powerful Essays