With the advent of the computer also came unethical computer whizzes, who enjoyed the idea of wreaking havoc with it. It was not long after PC’s became essential household items that brilliant people decided to use their genius to make people’s lives miserable. Instead of writing programs to benefit those with computers, they decided to write programs to destroy their computers.
These programs are called viruses. They have no purpose other than to eliminate a computer’s working capability. As a result, the good programmers were hired by antivirus companies to create software that would protect the consumer’s computer.
However, the war on viruses has not stopped there. As Microsoft has continued to update their operating systems for new computers, they have also joined in the battle to protect these machines. Their most recent endeavors have been included in
Windows 8.
Windows 8 is the most recent of the Microsoft operating systems. Over the years it has become increasingly evident that if Microsoft wanted to remain competitive, they would have to join in the fight to keep users’ computers safe. They couldn’t leave all of it up to the antivirus companies, because not everyone has the same level of antivirus protection on their computers.
The harder it is to break into the unprotected computer, however, the easier it is for the antivirus to do its job. As a result, Windows 8 has several security features that were not available before on other operating system platforms. Some of these security features are:
- Built in antivirus: for those users who don’t know about the importance of antivirus, or who can’t afford some of the higher level versions of the software, Windows 8 comes with it built in. This means that if you don’t have Antivirus on your computer, it will automatically default to the preprogrammed one already in your system.
- Memory modification resistance: the majority of viruses attack computers where the memory is stored, changing the code that tells it where to link and erasing what had previously been set up, thus wreaking havoc on your computer.
However, with what is called memory heap randomization, Windows 8 has made getting devastating viruses extremely difficult. This shrewd action by Microsoft means that where the memory is located it is now random. If the virus can’t locate memory to hack into, then it can’t attach itself to the memory and change it. This is probably the most significant of the security features included in Windows 8.
With these new security features, Windows 8 is far better than even Windows 7 was. It provides the user with a measure of security that did not previously exist. While it is impossible for Microsoft to create an operating system that is completely invulnerable to viruses, it is possible to make it so difficult to infect the computer that the number of people capable of doing so is effectively reduced to a manageable size.
In fact, the number of malicious hackers is decreasing, becoming ethical hackers using their skills and knowledge to help businesses and government at all levels construct state-of-the-art security measures. When potential viruses are significantly reduced, it is quite possible that the people capable of creating viruses will all be employed by those creating the systems, like Microsoft, thus resulting in a nearly non-existent computer virus problem.
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