Recently, I participated in a video seminar on "network security" and read some technical information about computer viruses. Speaking of computer viruses, I can't help but recall the situation related to the first time I encountered computer viruses.
During the Sino-US cooperation operation of Pingshuo Antaibao Mine, under the influence of US personnel, many of us began to contact and learn computers in our study and work. At that time, there were very few domestic computer applications, and many people had never seen computers before. Therefore, computers were respected as "high-tech" by people, while our computer technicians were respected as "high-tech talents".
In fact, people are more likely to know themselves. As computer technicians, we also feel very ashamed. At that time, we were very clear that we didn’t understand many computer technologies ourselves. At that time, there was no talk of computer technology research and development. Most of what we did was just computer application promotion work. Since many people have not studied computers, and their natural positions and technical barriers have been blocked, some of our computer personnel felt very awesome at that time. Taking advantage of the advantages of computer professionals, they only need to use some small skills to fool a group of business management personnel.
Back then, some of our computer technicians were indeed very pretentious and even fooled the Chinese leaders to give us several computer professionals and technicians, specially equipped them with so-called "labor protection" glasses that prevent computer radiation (in fact, they are just ordinary color-changing glasses that were just popular). At that time, several of our computer technicians who cooperated with foreign parties all wore seemingly cool fashionable "sun glasses", and these were all proved by photos from the time.
(Is the author’s computer radiation "protective glasses" cool back then?)
Because the Antaibao Mine had close contact with foreign personnel at that time, after the virus in foreign computers, it soon spread to the Antaibao Mine. Around the winter of 1988, I first encountered a "FallingLettersVirus" microcomputer virus, which caused the letters on the top of the screen to fall down and accumulate at the bottom of the screen. Although this virus has basically no substantial damage to computers, it has a great impact on people's normal work.
At that time, I was engaged in the IBM System/36 minicomputer. The MIS system carried by this model is the core center of the main management business of the mine. However, IBM System/36 minicomputers cannot be infected with viruses at all, and computer viruses mainly spread infections on PCs. Back then, computer viruses were still "new things". Since the virus occurred almost simultaneously with foreign countries and there was no virus-killing software at that time, foreigners were helpless about the virus at that time.
In my impression, the computer virus I first came into contact with was just infected with com and other executable files , which is not harmful to the user's application data files. When the virus first appeared, we had no antivirus knowledge. We usually just simply and roughly format the user's hard disk and reinstall the operating system. Since many people were accustomed to putting computer application files on the C drive at that time, we repeatedly warned users to backup computer application software and data files at any time.
I remember that after the first computer virus appeared in Antaibao Mine, many of our computer users seemed very nervous, fearing that the computer virus would destroy their work results. At that time, computer virus was still a "new term" and people's computer knowledge was not popular. Therefore, some uninformed leaders asked us with concern about preventing computer viruses - how to prevent computer virus infection? Should we wear a white coat and protective hat when entering the main computer room, like the Datong Mining Bureau Computing Center?
At that time, some people who had never seen a computer even misunderstood that computer viruses were infectious viruses that were transmitted from abroad through computers and were harmful to the human body. After my illiterate mother heard about the "computer virus that spread from abroad to China", she told me that it is best to wear gloves when touching the computer, and wash your hands frequently after using the computer to prevent the virus from spreading to yourself and others.At that time, she was almost asking me to wear a mask. For this reason, I had to explain that computer viruses can only be transmitted to computers, not to people.
In fact, computer virus (Computer Virus) refers to a set of computer instructions or program codes inserted by the compiler in the computer program , which destroys computer functions or data, maliciously affects the normal use of the computer and can copy itself. Computer viruses are contagious, concealed, infectious, latent, stimulating, expressive, or destructive.
Since the PC of Antaibao Mine has a virus, once there was a problem with the MIS system function of the IBM System/36 mini-machine of Antaibao Mine, some of our grassroots terminal users would yell - the computer management information system was also infected with the virus. In fact, there was no mechanism for the PC virus to occur on the IBM System/36 mini-machine at that time, just like some infectious viruses that are harmful to humans, but they did not play any role in mice, flies and other animals.
As computers gradually became popular and applied, computer viruses later showed a trend of diversification, and their harm was becoming increasingly greater. However, "the road is one foot taller, and the magic is one piece taller", the corresponding software for preventing and detecting computer viruses has become more and more advanced. Over the years, we humans and computer viruses have coexisted for a long time in the fight between each other, and the work of preventing computer viruses has gradually expanded from personal computers to various servers, computer networks and the entire Internet.
In the seminar last night, some netizens believed that the new coronavirus is currently raging, but the computer virus seems to be weakening. And I think - this is definitely a misleading illusion. In fact, with the rapid development of computer network technology , the harm of "cyber warfare" mainly based on virus attacks is becoming more and more serious, and our work to prevent network virus is becoming more and more important. Therefore, we should continue to strengthen our awareness of computer virus prevention and ensure the absolute security of the country and enterprises' network security, information systems and data assets.
(Lu Yanbin October 2022)
