Free The Computers of Star Trek by Lois H. Gresh Page B

network’s operating system to gain access to machines and duplicate itself again and again. Worms are self sufficient; they don’t need to attach themselves to another computer program to exist. They gobble up computer space and thus absorb system’s resources. In 1988, a computer worm spread through thousands of computer systems hooked to the Internet in just a few days. Imagine what it could do to the Federation’s network, linking hundreds of planets and thousands of starships. Furthermore, worms can be programmed to explode into life months after they infect systems.
    A Trojan-horse program appears to perform a specific and useful function, but it also has a hidden, usually destructive, agenda.
It’s different from a computer virus in that it doesn’t reproduce and infect other computers. The “Babel” program that caused the replicators on Deep Space Nine to produce a deadly virus (“Babel,” DS9 ) is a perfect example of a Trojan-horse program.
    Trojan-horse programs are extremely dangerous because they can be hidden in an operating system for long periods of time, unnoticed by anyone, until a specific chain of events sets them into operation. The deadly Cardassian security program that nearly destroys Deep Space Nine acts much like a Trojan-horse program. It is activated by events that no longer have any meaning on the station, but nearly succeeds in destroying all life on Deep Space Nine before it is deactivated (“Civil Defense,” DS9 ).
    The ultimate Trojan-horse program in the Star Trek universe has to be the code found in an 87-million-year-old artifact located in the nucleus of a comet in the D‘Arsay system. The incredibly ancient program is downloaded to the Enterprise-D computer and takes over the ship’s systems. The code uses the computer to recreate episodes of D’Arsay mythology, endangering the lives of everyone aboard the starship (“Masks,” TNG ).
    Worms and Trojan-horse programs can be dangerous, often-times deadly. Neither, however, is as harmful as a computer virus.
    The simplest definition of a computer virus is a program that changes other programs so as to include a working copy of itself inside them. Most computer viruses have a secondary, often malevolent, purpose. Most are coded to spread to as many machines as possible. In many ways, computer viruses are extremely similar to their biological cousins.
    Just as a biological virus needs a cell to reproduce, a computer virus needs another program for the same reason. Infected cells, like infected programs, can continue to function for a long time without showing any sign of the virus. Once a biological cell’s been infected, it makes new copies of the virus to infect other
cells. A program infected by a computer virus creates new copies of the virus to infect other programs. Most important, after a certain incubation period, a virus attacks the living system containing the infected cell. Just as a computer virus attacks the system containing the corrupted program. More than one researcher has pointed out that computer viruses could almost be classified as artificial life.
    Over the past decades, hundreds of new viruses have been detected and neutralized. Still, rogue programmers continue to manufacture malignant code that they release onto the Internet. And, with the increased globalization of computer technology, their aims have become increasingly dangerous.
    According to Time magazine, during the Gulf War, a band of Dutch hackers asked Iraq for one million dollars to disrupt the U.S. military’s deployment in the Middle East. No details of their plans were revealed. Fortunately for the United States, the Iraqis turned them down. Considering that the U.S. military uses the Internet for communications, the hackers could have caused serious problems for Operation Desert Storm. 1
    The Department of Defense considers cyberwar one of the greatest threats of the twenty-first