Child Observation Report

Such studies are inducted by scientists or researchers wanting to study the behavior of an organism (including humans) in a natural setting. It can be useful in collecting data that clearly reflects the constraints of an organism's normal environment and in the case where experimental techniques would be impractical or unethical. This report outlines the data collected during the sessions with each child. Will refer to Piglet's Cognitive Development Theory to demonstrate how it is useful in determining different stages of development. I will also outline my observations of both children in terms of where they fit in regards to Piglet'sCognitive Development Theory. Setting My observations were of two siblings; a four year old girl and a five year old boy. I made arrangements to do the observation through a friend of mine, who has two children under the age of six. I have known this family for three years. The first observation was of the four year old girl (M), which took place on Aug ust 19, 2014 starting at 2:23 pm outside in the backyard of their home. Present was her older brother (T – 5 years old), her mother (J), a female friend of the family (C), a medium sized German shepherd, who is the family dog (K) and myself.The backyard was quite large with a large play center with a swing set attached. The sky was a little clouded over, but it was still warm outside. The adults were sitting on the deck around the patio table. The children were told was there to do some work. They did not really pay too much attention to me. I interacted a little with the adults at the table so that I did not seem out of place to the children. My presence did not seem to affect the children at all. Sat with my chair facing the whole backyard so that I could see the children at all times.The second observation was of the five ear old boy I made arrangements with the mother to do the second observation with this child later the same week. The observation took place on August 22 , 2014 at 1:08 pm outside in the backyard of their home. This family is preparing to move in one week; therefore the backyard Was the best place to do the observation at the home. Present was his younger sister (M- 4 years old), his mother 0), a medium sized German shepherd, who is the family dog (K) and myself. The backyard was quite large with a large play center with a swing set attached.The sky was a little clouded over, but it was till warm outside. The mother and I were sitting on the deck around the patio table. The children were told I was there again to do some work. They again did not really pay too much attention to me. I interacted a little with their mother at the table so that did not seem out of place to the children. My presence did not seem to affect the children at all. Sat with my chair facing the whole backyard so that could see the children at all times. Results l. Self-concept: M pointed out that she did her hair all by herself when C arrived and M also showed C her new purse.M also shows the ability to scribe how she is feeling about her brother s actions, â€Å"l don ‘t like it when T hits me with his sword† or when she tells T, â€Å"I want to be alone right now†. . Gross Motor Skills: M demonstrated gross motor skills indicative off normal 4 year old. During the time of observation she displayed running around the backyard both with her brother and with the family dog, walking over to the play center, climbing over the chair on the deck, somersaults in the grass and jumping off the chair and off the family friend's lap. Ill. Fine Motor Skills: M demonstrated normal fine motor skills.She cut open her fruit knack package with scissors without difficulty. She put on her own shoes (fastened believer) on the correct feet before going outside to play. IV. Vocal & Language Development: M demonstrated the ability to form sentences more than 4 to 6 words. For example; â€Å"l told you I want to be alone†. She showed the ability to ask ‘Why ‘ questions. She shows an understanding of prepositions when her mother told her that her purse was behind her. She does, however have some grammatical difficulties and people other than her family do have difficulty deciphering what she is saying at times.According to ere mother she has been seen by a Speech & Language Pathologist and will be working with them on her speech. V. Social & Emotional Development: M showed a lot of interest in playing with her brother; however was also fine playing with the family dog as well. She appeared to really enjoy the imaginative play with her brother while playing the sword fight; however did upset easily if the game was not going her way and did change the rules quite a bit to her brother's dismay. She was quite distracted by the family dog and tended to her a lot.She displayed some difficulty with moral reasoning on he swing set when she was calling her brother a â€Å"party pants† repeatedly until h e got upset. When her brother kept getting in trouble instead of her she did not seem to be aware of his feelings when he was upset, instead she kept antagonizing him. VI. Cognitive Development: M understands the concept of grouping and matching as displayed when she was helping her mother with the puzzle and when taking items out of her purse. She also showed the ability to count from 1 to 10 when she was taking the items out of her purse.She showed the ability to identify secondary colors when showing the family friend her new â€Å"pink† purse. She was able to answer simple questions. She was also able to identify common objects and what they are used for; for example the family dogs ball, scissors, hat. Results (Child T) l. Gross Motor Skills: T demonstrated gross motor skills indicative of a normal 5 year old. During the time of observation he displayed running around the backyard, skipping, jumping, walking on just his hands, doing handstands, and hanging on the bars up side down on the play centre.II. Fine Motor Skills: T demonstrated normal fine motor skills. He put on his own shoes (fastened by velour) on the correct feet before going outside to play. He was able to use scissors to open his sour patch kids, which was his snack that afternoon. Ill. Vocal & Language Development: T demonstrated the ability to form sentences more than 4 to 6 words. For example; â€Å"I'm goanna throw it really high†, â€Å"There is a wasp in your ear, Can I have friends over later†? He demonstrated the ability to ask â€Å"why† questions. He does not have any speech or grammatical difficulties.He appears to have met all of his developmental milestones for his age. VII. Social & Emotional Development: It is quite apparent that T really enjoys imaginative play and is able to accomplish this either with others or by himself. He did not partake in any imaginative play with his sister this time; however did do some imaginative play on his own pretend ing to be a gymnast who was displaying his talents for a crowd, as he bowed for people when he completed a stunt on the bars or completed a handstand. He also engaged in imaginative play with the family dog pretending she was his dragon.He also is able to talk quietly to himself while playing on his own, but does not seem to be talking to a third person or imaginary friend. VIII. Cognitive Development: T understands the concept of grouping and matching as displayed when he was putting all the same lord sour patch kids together and separating them. He also noted which ones had less in each group than the others. He let those for last. He demonstrated the ability to count from 1 to 10 and demonstrated the ability to identify primary colors. He was able to answer simple questions.He was also able to identify common objects and what they are used for; for example the family dogs ball and scissors. Discussion: Integration of behavior with theory According to Piglet's Cognitive Developmen t Theory (Beer, 201 0, p. 31 8), both children are in the operational stage (2-7), and they behave normally. They are classified as operational children, because the definition of the operational stage is as follows; ages between 2-7, preschool children use symbols to represent their early sentiments discoveries.The development of language and make-believe play takes place; however, thinking lacks the logic of the two remaining stages. T is a very active child. He has been in pre kindergarten over the last year and has been very socialized between school, extra-curricular activities, playground and playmates with friends. He is on a soccer team as well and enjoys this very much his mother says. T was quite active on the play centre this afternoon, especially on the hanging bars showing off his ability to hang upside down. He also displayed his ability to swing on the swings while standing on the swing instead of sitting on it.He is quite a daring child. He was engaging in make-belie ve play acting as though he was doing these stunts for an audience as after each stunt he would get up and bow to the imaginary audience. M was happily swinging on the swing set, petting her dog, doing somersaults in the grass and drawing in the mud with a stick. She has the ability to keep herself busy and is happy to do so. She also enjoyed make-believe play with her brother playing a sword fight. Make-believe play increases in sophistication during the pre-school years (Beer, 2010, p. 318).M used her stick as her â€Å"sword† during the sword fight and as her â€Å"magic wand† later on during the observation. This demonstrates her ability to coordinate her make-believe roles and pretend with less realistic toys (Beer, 2010, p. 318). M and T were both using the play center together happily. M fell off her swing and T went up and hit M for no reason and walked over to K, the family dog. T hugs K quite roughly and says â€Å"You're my mummy bear† and walks away. I have noted on both occasions during these observations that T displays a bit of aggression.According to Freud, play can have a cathartic effect, as children try to rid themselves of traumatic events or negative feelings through play. T asks his mother, â€Å"Mom, do you have to work today? His mother says â€Å"No, not today'. T asks â€Å"Why†? His mother answers, â€Å"Because have the day foot spend time with you and your sister†. T says, â€Å"Okay, I like that†. His language and understanding of language is well formed and has good sentence structure for his stage in development. His has no beech or grammatical issues. He asks â€Å"why† questions and understands the meaning to the answers to simple questions and answers.M told her brother â€Å"l want to be alone†. Her brother did not leave her alone. M turned to him and said, â€Å"l told you, want to be alone†! This demonstrates M's ability to verbalize her feelings and has a so lid awareness of what she is feeling and thinking and is able to share it with others readily. During the sword fight, M said â€Å"you be the sword, I will be the gun†. T did not like this role change and disagreed. M said, â€Å"No! I am the gun, you are the sword†. She continued to e a gun, which seemed to anger T and he started hitting M with his sword. M screamed and T got in trouble with his mother.M was able to assign roles; however was not able to negotiate well, which is usually indicated during the operational stage. On the play center, M was swinging on the swing and T was on the bar hanging upside down beside her. M calls T a â€Å"poppy pants†. T gets off the bar and hits her swing with his sword. M screams. T goes back to the bar. M calls T a â€Å"party pants†. T hits M's swing with the sword again. M screams again and calls out to her mom. Mom ignores this. M continues to all T a â€Å"party pants† repeatedly. T starts hitting M's s wing again, as M is screaming.This goes on for five minutes (timed). Mom finally tells T to stop and tells him that if he hits her swing one more time, his sword will be taken away. M proceeds to call T a â€Å"party pants† again. T hesitates to do anything and looks over at mom who is ignoring the situation. M continues to taunt T. Finally, T hits M's swing and M screams. It's sword is taken away. T asks mom why M is not in trouble for calling him a â€Å"party pants†. Mom does not respond and walks away. M calls T a â€Å"party pants† one last time and leaves the swing. She runs overt mom and gives her a hug and kiss and says â€Å"I love you mommy'.The mother used presentation of punishment to decrease It's undesirable behavior. The warning and punishment had a positive and negative response. The positive response was that the behavior was stopped. The negative response was that only one undesirable behavior was punished and stopped. When parents treat their children differently by directly varying amounts Of discipline to the two children, sibling relations are likely to be more conflicting and less friendly if children view these differences as unfair, which I believe T did by his reaction.I found this to be concerning, considering It's amount of aggression he displays in his make-believe play. M also showed a lack of moral reasoning and did not show that she was not aware of It's feelings. M takes her small Barbie's out her purse and other figurines and groups all the Barbie's together and all the figurines together, which displays the ability to draw appropriate inferences about these objects and shows normal categorization, as with the puzzle she was doing with her mother at the table.M and her brother pretend to hit the family dog with their swords and at times actually hit the dog. They also pretend to cut the dog up with their swords. These behaviors demonstrate animistic thinking believing that their inanimate object (sword) h as lifelike qualities and intentions. According to Pigged, because young children egocentrically assign human purposes to physical events, magical thinking is common during the preschool years, (Beer, 2010, p. 321). Conclusion I enjoyed observing these children very much.I have watched them grow and change over the last three years. I find M very animated and interesting to observe and find T very in touch with his emotions and struggles with them at times. He is very athletic and determined. The reason I chose the children's home environment is because I felt their own surroundings would be a good way to see what their normal daily routines would be and to see how they interact with family members. I found the backyard a bit limiting and would not choose this setting again.Even though I did not find it was a great setting, did manage to collect some good data. As a mother and grandmother, I did find it hard sometimes during these observations not to jump in and say something to the mother when she was ignoring certain behaviors or when her children clearly just needed some attention. So it was hard at times not to interact with the children. However, I knew I had to control that urge as my role was to observe nothing more. I have learned how to observe and evaluate a child in the operational stage.I have learned what milestones to look for and where a child between the ages of 2 to 7 should be developmentally. It gave me a better understanding to physically do the exercise rather than just reading a textbook I see the value in observing two different children, as not all children are alike in development and behavior. Ideally, a different setting for each hill would have been preferred; however this family is moving in a week and their home is full of moving boxes, so I settled for the backyard with both children.

Racism and Anti-Semitism in America Essay

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1the Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet

The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet And Mr. Darcy Susan Fraiman in her essay â€Å"The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet† argues that Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, is disempowered when she marries Fitzwilliam Darcy who succeeds Mr. Bennet as controlling literary figure. Fraiman claims that Elizabeth is a surrogate-son to her father trapped inside her female body during an age when gender roles were rigorously fixed.Judith Butler in her essay of 1990 called â€Å"Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, â€Å"states that performing one's gender wrong initiates a set of punishments both obvious and indirect. Through the contribution of Butler's theory, this essay aims to demonstrate that it is not only, as Fraiman claims, Elizabeth Bennet who is punished by society for performing her gender wrong, but also Mr. Darcy. In respect to convention, Mister Darcy performs his gender wrong as well as he goes by a feminine name and is often passive, â€Å"unsocial† and â€Å"taciturn† as Elizabeth puts it.He admits: â€Å"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess of conversing easily with those I have never seen before† He admits to Elizabeth at the very that he was embarrassed when she asks him why he was â€Å"so shy of [her]†. It must be considered then that Darcy does not want to â€Å"humiliate? Elizabeth with his â€Å"extensive power† of a â€Å"paternalistic noble† but is rather humiliated by it himself. after all he has many â€Å"feminine† characteristics: He waits to be approached; he prefers listening to talking; e is receptive rather than aggressive; he is anxious about his reputation and judges people according to their manners; he is the person his friends come to for advice, and he writes letters instead of personally confronting people. To perform one's gender right, as Judith Butler asser ts in â€Å"Performative Acts and Gender Constitution,† means to perform one's gender in accordance with historical and cultural sanctions that change over time. Butler's essay deconstructs society's belief that gender is a fixed natural given.She questions if and how we exist before societal ideology's imposition by observing gender in a phenomenological way and finds that gender is always performed, but the performance varies according to time period. What does not vary, however, is society's punishment of people who don't perform their gender according to the current convention. Elizabeth Bennet has aligned herself with her father and his male, independent perspective. Mr. Bennet bequeaths [to Elizabeth] his ironic distance from the world, the habit of studying and appraising those around him, the role of social critic.Therefore Lizzie is less a daughter than a surrogate son, who by giving up the mother and giving in to the father, reaps the spoils of maleness. In regards to society, however, Lizzie's male independence is dangerous. She does not behave like a gentlewoman of her time who was expected to draw and do needlework indoors while waiting for a suitor to whisk her off to the altar. Ex. *The haughty Bingley sisters immediately declare her behavior unsuitable: â€Å"To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it is, above her ankles in dirt, and alone, quite alone! What could she mean by it?It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country-town indifference to decorum† (Austen 25). *When Mr. Collins proposes to Lizzie, she doesn't employ â€Å"the usual practice of elegant females, but declines his offer as a â€Å"rational creature speaking the truth from her heart† (Austen 75). While Lizzie's decision to refuse the buffoonish Mr. Collins is justified, it is nonetheless precarious in her situation. If she and her sister Jane hadn't married Darcy and Bingley respectively, which can be regarded as the exceptions to the rule, they would have lost their parents? ntailed house to Mr. Collins. Lizzie, within Regency England society, is performing her gender „wrong? by not accepting a promising proposal. Instead, she displays typically male behavior: â€Å"You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me? But I will not be alarmed though your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me† (Austen 115). Obstinacy and audacity are not socially scripted feminine qualities. Lizzie turns down Mr.Darcy's proposal in an equally confident manner: â€Å"Every time Darcy opens his mouth, he is superseded by a speech of greater length and vehemence;† â€Å"Her language, her feelings, her judgments overwhelm his† (Fraiman 361). Elizabeth here not only matches Darcy in intellect, she tops hi m. Many of her characteristics would be highly-regarded in a man, but not in a woman. While letter-communication was common practice in Regency England for both women and men alike, the letter Mr. Darcy writes to Elizabeth is not a regular correspondence letter, but a letter that deals with his strong emotions in a very feminine fashion.In his need to justify himself for Elizabeth's accusations, he bares his soul in such a forthcoming, dignified, and eloquent manner as only a woman's love letter would be expected to accomplish. His letter is so well-composed that he likely dedicated hours of drafts to it. Austen emphasizes the uniqueness of Darcy's letter by putting male letter-writing into perspective. Charles Bindley's letters are described as chaotic, correspondence-related and short: â€Å"Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable.He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest,† claims his sister Caroline (Austen 33). Meanwhile, she employs feminine terms to de pict Mr. Darcy's writing: â€Å"do you always write such charming long letters† (Austen 32-3). The boyish Elizabeth, in contrast, writes two letters in Pride and Prejudice: both are addressed to Mrs. Gardiner and are simple correspondence letters. Mr. Darcy's letter therefore is less of a hostile takeover of authorial power, as Fraiman calls it (â€Å"her authorial powers wane†), but rather his only means of expressing himself to Elizabeth (Fraiman 377).He is not a â€Å"controlling literary figure† (Fraiman 383) that replaces Elizabeth's father, but someone who takes a great risk by revealing sensitive personal details which could be used to destroy him socially to a woman who has just refused him as a husband. In a very feminine way, Mr. Darcy gives Elizabeth power over his family's reputation and himself. Darcy's behavior so far has, as Butler puts it, â€Å"initiate[d] a set of punishments both obvious and indirect† (Butler 279). Elizabeth especially, as a member of her society, misreads him repeatedly and therefore indirectly disempowers him because he cannot make himself heard by her.Mr. Darcy's passive feminine side is generally misread by society as pride, which shows that to perform one's gender „wrong? results in punishment. Darcy doesn't court Elizabeth in the way she and society expect; therefore he, just as much as Lizzie, suffers â€Å"a loss of clout† (Fraiman 377). The gender-performance that is expected of Elizabeth and Darcy by society runs anathema to their original one and they realize toward the end of the novel that they have to succumb to society's gender-script if they want to be together.As Susan Fraiman argues, Elizabeth, as a woman, has to relinquish some of her power: â€Å"Elizabeth marries a decent man and a large estate, but at a certain cost;† â€Å"Darcy disempowers Elizabeth if only because of the positions they each occupy in the social schema: because he is a man and she is a wife† (Fraiman 384). The cost is her compromise, but Darcy has to make it as well; the cost might even be a gain if Darcy respects Elizabeth as a wife, and there is no evidence in the novel that he won? t. Conclusion: Fraiman's blame of Mr.Darcy disempowering Elizabeth is misdirected in that she reads him solely as a man, not as a person who has as much trouble performing his gender right as does Lizzie. Darcy has to give up passive observing and letter-writing in favor of action, such as saving the damsel in distress Lydia. Fraiman's critique of Elizabeth marrying Darcy also does not invoke singleness as a liberating alternative, in which case Lizzie would lose even more power. The novel rather reveals the limits of everyone’s personal autonomy in a society where gender roles are fixed.Mr. Darcy never sought to take Elizabeth's power or independence away-quite the opposite- they caused his falling in love with her. If Elizabeth is disempowered after her marriage, the b lame must be directed at Regency society, not Mr. Darcy; marriage itself is always a compromise, after all. Mr. Darcy, just as much as Elizabeth, sacrifices a great deal of his original individuality by aligning his gender-performance with Regency society's convention. But, as Lizzie says: â€Å"We do not suffer by accident. †

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Current Strategy of Ikea - Essay Example This paper puts into perspective the various current strategies employed by IKEA. IKEA’s current strategy is focused on low cost of operations. Case in point is that the company assembles most of its products on a self-assembly basis. This strategy is critical for the company because it helps in cutting transportation and operational cost. The company also uses the strategy to focus on the middle class on each segment of the market (Palepu et al., 2012). IKEA has a strategy that has immense cultural orientations. Case in point is that the company’s advertisement program has attention catching elements that make its products salable to a wide range of customers. Essentially, IKEA does not focus its attention on the mass market, but rather concentrates on marketing approaches that target individuals. The market in the current dispensation is increasingly competitive, and IKEA has sought to establish mechanisms that can ensure continual relevance in the market. Ideally, the company’s current strategy is more quality oriented (Elliott et al., 88). Quality defines the products that a company deals with and fundamentally distinguishes it from the competitors. IKEA has become bullish in the market due to its quality furniture that is characterized by uniqueness. Another current strategy that IKEA focuses on is the diversification of its products (Elliott et al., 212). The Company does not just focus on the mainstream furniture products, but also concentrates on childrens products. Additionally, the company produces customized products for its clients as a consequence of meeting their needs and expectations. IKEA has an advertisement strategy that has limited orientation in the international market (Daft et al., 234). Case in point is that the promotional strategy adopted by IKEA is based on catalogues. The current strategies that have been adopted by the company have

Federalism and Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Federalism and Business - Essay Example A federal system is favourable than a unitary one because the state territories can be used as laboratories to try out business policy changes such as several fusions of laws, technological adjustments and tax policies. New policies are important to promote competitiveness as time goes by. It is easier for a federal government to perform experiments on policy changes since it can use a selected state as a ‘lab rat’. This experimentation phenomenon has been successfully used severally in the UK in health, education and economic policies (Martin & Sanderson, 1999, 249). If a policy leads to better business performance in the selected state, it can then be used throughout the regions. If disastrous, the federal government can correct or control the effects more economically unlike a central government. Centralized governments employ more of similar policies in the entire area of governance. They are therefore reluctant to try out new policies due to extensive risks likely t o affect the entire economy (Rich & William, 2002, 58). State governments have more information on their constituents’ needs than the central government. Presumably, decentralized governments are closer to their constituents and are more likely to have better knowledge of local cost conditions and preferences. If such information is publicized, businesses can be able to take advantage of the market niche that needs to be filled. Even though the central government can theoretically employ local agents, they will probably have less political incentive to put into account their constituents’ needs above those of local government agents. The states will therefore have a relative advantage over the central government in experimentation and creating variation.... The states will therefore have a relative advantage over the central government in experimentation and creating variation. Federalized governments are better supervisors of business and business related activities. This is as a result of reduction in complexities associated with bureaucracies in centralized governments. Federal governments can therefore be said to be more effective in performing their supervisory duties to the public. According to Lord Bryce in Zavodnyik, 2011 (p65 - 68), the growth in civil order in the United States has been as a result of state governments ability to closely monitor affairs of the citizens than congress was. As per Zavodnyik, this is one of the factors which drove USA to being one of the largest and most organized economies in the world. The US through its states system can better enforce business contracts in the states. It can also perform more effective control in the respective state markets due to ‘closeness’ of the government to the people. This reduces counterfeits and the number of transactions performed in the black market. Fabbrini 2009, in the book ‘Democracy and Federalism in the European Union and the United States: Exploring Post-National Governance’ seconds this pointing the US and UK as the countries with the lowest levels of counterfeit products in their territorial markets. Even though the governments may use the federal government to reduce illegal trades in order to maximize on the amount of taxes it collects, this promotes businesses whose markets are put at risk by counterfeits and illegal transactions which are expensive (European Center for Security Studies, 2010, 103). This creates a conducive breeding ground for businesses since it means less bureaucracy and red tape measures which

Role of brand elements in developing brand equity Essay

Role of brand elements in developing brand equity - Essay Example Competition is immense in current business world and prominent companies are looking for every opportunity to increase their competitive power. Brand building is one way of increasing competitive power. Branding is a process intended for building awareness about a product or service. It enhances customer loyalty towards a particular product or service. It helps a product or service to distinguish itself from other products or services. Brands have different attributes which help them to cement their place in the minds of consumers. According to Kathiravana, et al., (2010) â€Å"Brand attributes consist of ‘bits’ of information that are linked to a brand name in consumer memory and that, when combined with the brand name, make up a brand’s image†( p.21) â€Å"Brand Equity is the value and strength of the Brand that decides its worth. It can also be defined as the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumer’s response to the Brand Marketingâ₠¬  (Brand Equity - Meaning and Measuring Brand Equity, 2013). It is the value that a consumer gives to a particular brand. For example, iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia and Samsung Galaxy S3 are some of the leading smartphones available in the market at present. Apple Inc. is the second largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization and they are the most valuable technology company in the world at present. Samsung on the other hand is one of the rapidly emerging consumer electronics company in the world and its products are well accepted in the market. Nokia was the leader in the mobile phone manufacturing industry until recent times. All these factors or brand elements will influence the consumers when they go for the purchasing of a smartphone. This paper analyses the role of brand elements in developing brand equity. Role of brand elements in developing brand equity Some of the major elements of brand equity are; changing market share, profit margins, consumer recognition o f logos and other visual elements, brand language associations made by consumers, consumers' perceptions of quality and other relevant brand values (Wilson C. 2008). Brand elements such as brand names, URLs, logos, characters, slogans, jingles and packaging are playing an important role in developing the brand equity. Brand names â€Å"Consumer behaviour blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics†(Zeb et al., 2011, p.225). For example, the name Apple actually represents a fruit. However, in consumer electronics industry, Apple represents Apple Company. A fruit stall owner may not be confused when a consumer asks for Apple. Same way, an electronics product dealer may not be confused when a consumer asks for Apple. The name Bill Gates remind us about Microsoft even through there are plenty of people in that name. Moreover, the name Microsoft reminds everybody about the computer OS whereas the name Android reminds about mobile phone OS. In shor t, brand names have the ability to touch the minds of consumers in one way or another. They play an important role in identifying the brand and building brand equity. According to Mishra & Datta (2011), â€Å"Brand  Name  (BN) was seen to have a strong impact on Customer Based  Brand Equity (CBBE),  Brand  Association (BAS) and Perceived  Brand Quality (PBQ) in case of students whereas for professionals brand  name  had a stronger impact on  Brand  Awareness (BA)†(p.109). Students and professionals interpret brand names in different ways. It should be noted that students or teenagers consider the opinions of others while taking any purchasing decision. In other words, they will purchase products based on the mouth publicity. Viral marketing or

Homosexuality Essay Example for Free

Homosexuality Essay Homosexuality within the church is a controversial matter that is threatening to break apart the over 20-century-old institution of the church. This paper sets out to demonstrate that, Homosexuality within the church and the society is a controversial matter that is yet to be resolved. With particular emphasis with the teachings of the Catholic tradition on Homosexuality, the paper seeks to analyze how Homosexuality has for the entire history of the Catholic tradition threatened to divide the church. The paper also will take a view of Homosexuality in today’s society in a bid to compare and contrast how modern society views on Homosexuality differ from the teachings of the church and the reasons behind the church’s rather conservative approach to the Homosexuality issue. The Catholic church was founded around 2nd century at a time when church and state were inseparable and the church yielded much influence over state affairs and governance. With particular reference to Roman empire, the Catholic church in Rome came to be so powerful that church law determined state’s laws and the papacy was responsible for the running of not only the church affairs, but also of the state affairs. So much was the influence of the Catholic Church leadership on state governance that, church leaders were powerful and revered because they could exert political and religious authority. The issue of Homosexuality within the Catholic Church is not new and as early as the 5th century, there is evidence to the fact that, the issue had come up often in church doctrine and it had been discussed at the highest level of the church. Homosexuality according to the Catholic tradition is evil and not permissible. Indeed, the Catholic tradition holds that those who engage in Homosexuality should be excommunicated from the church, a punishment that is not revertible and rarely does the church leadership give audience to those viewed to be disobedient to the Catholic stance on Homosexuality. According to Catholic tradition, a union between a man and a man or between a woman and a woman is seen and therefore, it is contravention to the church teachings. As a result of the position the church has maintained for centuries, the issue of Homosexuality in the church continues to elicit emotional debates and is currently one of the most controversial issues in the Catholic Church especially the Catholic Church in USA. Rather than amend the existing church doctrine, to reflect modern society, and particularly the newfound freedom amongst the youth in America, the church continues to make key amendments to its dogmatic teachings, which continue to depict the church as old-fashioned, insensitive and non-responsive to modernity. The number of youth attending church in the USA has been found to have declined by upto 30% in the past few decades. This is reflected by the fact that, there are fewer Americans willing to take up leadership positions in the church causing a major shortage of father, nuns, etc. in the church. Although Homosexuality as an issue is not solely to blame for the current standoff, it is evidently a contributing factor to the leadership crisis the church is facing and the inability of the church to attract young people to participate in church leadership. Their lax evidence and substantial research in the causes of the church’s conservative position, which inspite of being challenged by scholars in the church and the faithfuls has remained perpetually undeterred and continues to maintain the hard position it has taken for the past centuries. In sharp contrast to the position taken by the clergy, there is growing evidence that a gay culture is slowly gaining root amongst the clergy something, which is proving to be magnanimous and one of the latest scandal in the Catholic church . This has had an impact on values that the church has continued to teach including family values that the church bases as its key argument against ratification of Homosexuality within the church. Although it is hard to say for sure how many Catholic clergy are involved in Homosexuality, going by the number of those who come out in the open and defiantly state their support of Homosexuality, it is clear that there are significant numbers of clergy engaging in Homosexual practices, promoting Homosexuality as well as openly or silently advocating for Homosexuality . This has left the church leadership in a dilemma as it has become very difficult for a common ground to be struck between proponents and opponents of Homosexuality in the church. What started as deliberations to examine how the church could respond to Homosexuality and its growing influence in the face of organized homosexual groups, which started getting rights to marriage as well as other rights, guarding from discrimination has put the Catholic church especially in the USA at crossroads. As a result of the raging debate, the media sought to focus attention on the issue of Homosexuality and how the church was responding to it leading to numerous reports accusing cardinals in the USA of engaging in Homosexuality. This has further been complicated by the fact that whenever Homosexuality debate has come up, the issue of pedophilia has come up . This has further complicated the Homosexual debate in that it gives the Homosexual debate a negative image in the public given that pedophilia is a sensitive issue equitable to crime. Homosexuality in the Catholic Church is so complex that, the independence given to cardinals has made it virtually impossible even for victims of Homosexuality perpetrated by the clergy to successfully wage complaints. For instance, clergy collaborate with their superiors to perpetrate Homosexual behaviour to young boys and instead of such clergy being punished when the matter comes out in the open, it is often the victims and their families who suffer most. Indeed, in many cases, members of the church are more likely to quit church because the only way out is to avoid confrontation with the church. This has further been complicated by the fact that, the church has been rather unwilling to acknowledge that Homosexuality is a problem within the church something which means that whenever such accusations are raised against the church leadership, the church is less willing or not devoted to dealing with the problem of Homosexuality. In most cases, the ‘offenders’ receive light punishments such as transfer and rarely has any meaningful punishment been referred against clergy by the church. This indifference from the church leadership has continued to taint the church’s image especially considering that there is a general lack of understanding and appreciation of Homosexuality amongst church faithfuls. That the Catholic Church traditionally believes Homosexuality is a sin, is evidenced by the constant pleas and calls for repentance the church sends out to self-confessed Homosexuals. Indeed, there is a clear difference between Homosexuality as practiced in the church and Homosexuality as practiced in the society. The matter is further complicated by the fact that, traditional Catholic beliefs do not allow members of clergy to marry or engage in sexual intercourse leave alone Homosexuality. Therefore, Homosexuality in the church circles is viewed as clerical abuse and is treated as such. There is enough evidence towards the fact that, the church is willing to fight on and totally ban Homosexuality in the church and especially within the clergy. However, the church is faced with a dilemma in that, it does not support the concept of Homosexuality. As such, the church leadership is in a state of denial, which seeks to present the church as devoid of Homosexuality but at the same time, wants to fight incidences of Homosexuality if and when reported. Although in some cases those accused of Homosexuality have been forced to resign, such calls come from the faithful and tend to be grounded on threats of charges and not as a contradiction of traditional teachings or church dogma considering that the church is reluctant to acknowledge that even within its clergy the problem of Homosexuality is rife. Outside the US, resistance to Homosexuality in the church is higher compared to US where in some cases, some archdioceses have the leeway to choose whether to work with Homosexuals or not. This is bringing a new dimension into the Homosexuality debate in regard to celibacy and a call for further scholarly interpretation of celibacy as understood in the Catholic Church . It is not surprising that the issue of Homosexuality in the church has never been comprehensively dealt with despite the fact that, Homosexuality in the church has been practiced since the 1970s upto present and evidently with the knowledge of the church leadership . Another dimension that the Homosexuality debate has taken in the church is questioning of how effectively Homosexual clergy are capable of guiding the faithful. The fact that Homosexuality is still considered by many Catholics as sin and violation of their traditional beliefs brings a dilemma to the clergy who are Homosexuals and is a common cause of conflicts. This has led many to question the ability of those who violate church teachings to lead the faithfuls who hold different points of view on Homosexuality. Indeed, this has brought about an ethical dimension to the Homosexuality debate in the church. While the proponents of Homosexuality call for relaxation of traditional teachings on celibacy, opponents of Homosexuality call for chastity and upholding of traditional teachings on sexuality as handed down by generations . Evidently, Homosexuality in the church has started to take a new dimension, that of civil liberties and civil rights. In this regard, there are those who want to bring the human rights issue into the Homosexuality debate and look at the church’s stance on Homosexuality as a violation of civil liberties and civil rights. This dimension has been criticized due to the fact that, the church is an independent institution whose doctrine is out of state control and therefore, compelling the church to accept Homosexuality as an attempt to guarantee civil liberties and civil rights, has in the past failed to yield into results. Therefore, while some liberals view Homosexuality as an orientation and something to be left to the choice of an individual, others view the church and indeed the Christian faith as dominant when it comes to individual choices and therefore, this implies that once one accepts membership into the church, individualism is less important and collectivity is emphasized. If what is happening in other denominations such as Evangelicals and Anglicans is anything to go by, Homosexuality in the church will continue to be a contentious issue and the solution lies in the granting of independence to churches to make individual decisions on how to conduct the Homosexuality debate. Indeed, nothing has in the recent history of the church been so hard to strike a common position on, as has been with the case of Homosexuality. Efforts by the church to transform Homosexuals through methods such as therapy in form of Bible teachings, have failed and that too has been considered as interference in civil liberties and civil rights of individuals. Therefore, asking homosexuals to change their sexual orientation has greatly failed and it seems that the homosexuals are gaining ground in the church and are swelling in numbers. If current estimates of homosexuals in the church today are anything to go by, the Catholic Church may find it difficult to contain the ‘homosexual movement’ and it is the high time that a multidimensional approach to the Homosexual debate is adapted with an aim of bringing together conservatives and liberals to strike a common ground. Even the involvement of scriptural interpretation has failed to yield into meaningful results as different groups have interpreted the issue differently. Therefore, the Biblical standpoint has ceased to be what guides the debate on Homosexuality and the church and evidently civil rights and civil liberties dimension together with emotive dimension is what is taking prominence in the debate about Homosexuality in the church. In conclusion, the view of Homosexuality in the contemporary society is as controversial as it is the case in the church. However, since the moral standards in the contemporary society compared to the moral standards set by the church are significantly different, homosexuals have received insignificant resistance in the civil society than has been the case in the church. That modernity has influenced the way modern society has welcomed Homosexuality is for sure but the teachings of the church have failed to incorporate the views of the same society that it purports to serve. This has resulted into a conflict that persists between the church and the modern society something, which will be resolved when the church will amend its teachings to reflect the modern society standpoint. There is a need for more scholarly studies geared towards establishing a common ground between opponents and proponents of Homosexuality with a view of diffusing the standoff between those who support a more tolerant church position on Homosexuality and those who are opposed to a more inclusive position on Homosexuality in connection to the church. There is a need for the Catholic Church to review its training programs for clergies in a bid to deal with the problem of clergy engaging in abusive behaviour that has resulted into conflict of interest and lack of harmony in the church. It is no doubt that, the society expects the church to be a model in as far as moral standards are concerned, and therefore, when clergy are accused of engaging in Homosexuality, which is in the first place against the official position of the church, doubts arise about the church’s teachings on Homosexuality.

The Introduction To Malicious Software Computer Science Essay

The Introduction To Malicious Software Computer Science Essay Malware is a collective term for any malicious software which enters system without authorization of user of the system. The term is created from amalgamation the words malicious and software. Malware is a very big hazard in todays computing world. It continues to grow in capacity and advance in complexity. As more and more organization try to address the difficulty, the number of websites distribute the malware is rising at an frightening rate and is getting out of control. Most of the malware enters the system while downloading files over Internet. Once the malicious software finds its way into the system, it scans for vulnerabilities of operating system and perform unintended actions on the system finally slowing down the performance of the system. Malware has ability to infect other executable code, data/system files, boot partitions of drives, and create excessive traffic on network leading to denial of service. When user executes the infected file; it becomes resident in memory and infect any other file executed afterwards. If operating system has a vulnerability, malware can also take control of system and infect other systems on network. Such malicious programs (virus is more popular term) are also known as parasites and adversely affect the performance of machine generally resulting in slow-down. Some malware are very easy to detect and remove through antivirus software[1]. These antivirus software maintains a repository of virus signatures i.e., binary pattern characteristic of malicious code. Files suspected to be infected are checked for presence of any virus signatures. This method of detection worked well until the malware writer started writing polymorphic malware [15][16] and metamorphic malware. These variant of malware avoid detection through use of encryption techniques to thwart signature based detection. Security products such as virus scanners look for characteristics byte sequence (signature) to identify malicious code. The quality of the detector is determined by the techniques employed for detection. A stealth malware detection[36] technique must be able to identify malicious code that is hidden or embedded in the original program and should have some capability for detection of yet unknown malware. Commercial virus scanners have very low resilience to new attacks because malware writers continuously make use of new obfuscation methods so that the malware could evade detections. 2.1 Computer Virus A computer virus[6] is basically a program which is written by the programmers whose behaviour is to replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term virus is also normally, but incorrectly, used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware .and these spyware programs that do not have a reproductive ability. Malware includes various computer viruses[6], such as computer worms, Trojan horses[17], most of them are rootkits, spyware which are also considered as dishonest adware and other malicious or redundant software, including proper viruses. Viruses are occasionally confused with worms and Trojan horses, which are theoretically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerabilities to spread itself repeatedly to other computers through networks[7], while a Trojan horse is a program that appears nontoxic but hides malicious functions. Worms and Trojan horses[17], like viruses, may harm a computer systems data or recital. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves. An example of a virus which is not a malware, but is putatively benevolent, is Fred Cohens theoretical compression virus[6]. However, various antivirus professionals[5] dont admit the concept of kindly viruses, as any beloved function can be implemented without involving a virus automatic compression, for instance, is available under the Windows operating system at the choice of the user. Any virus will by definition make unconstitutional changes to a computer, which is undesirable even if no damage is done or intended. On page one of Dr Solomons Virus pdf, the undesirability of viruses, even those that do nothing but reproduce, is thoroughly explained. 2.1.1 Academic Work Veith Risak published[6] the article whose title was as follows Selbstreproduzierende Automaten mit minimaler Information sà ¼bertragung (Self-reproducing automaton with minimum information switch over). The article described a fully serviceable virus written in assembler language for a particular SIEMENS 4004/35 computer system. In the year 1980 Jà ¼rgen Kraus wrote his thesis on Selbstreproduktion bei Programmen at the University of Dortmund. In his work Kraus guess that computer programs[4] can behave in a way parallel to biological viruses. In the year of 1984 Fred Cohen at the University of Southern California wrote his paper on the Computer Viruses[6] Theory and Experiments. It was the first paper of him in which he has explained to clearly call a self-reproducing program a virus, a term introduced by Cohens mentor Leonard Adleman. Fred Cohen published a exhibition that there is no algorithm that can perfectly detect all potential viruses. An article that published on malware that describes useful virus functionalities was available by J. B. Gunn in the title Use of virus functions to provide a virtual APL predictor under user control in 1984. 2.1.2 Science Fiction There are several myths associated with the science.The actual term virus was first used to symbolize a self-reproducing program in a small story by David Gerrold in Galaxy magazine in 1969-and later in his 1972 novel, When HARLIE Was One. In that novel, a attentive computer named HARLIE writes viral software to recover damaging personal information from other computers to blackmail the man who wants to turn him off. Michael Crichton[7] told as a sideline story of a computer with telephone modem dialing potential, which had been automatic to randomly dial phone numbers until it hit a modem that is answered by another computer. It was an attempt to program the answer computer with its own program, so that the second computer would also begin dialing unsystematic numbers, in search of yet a different computer to program. The program is assumed to spread exponentially through susceptible computers. 2.1.3 Virus Programs The Creeper virus[6] was first detected on ARPANET, the prototype of the Internet, in the early 1970s. Creeper was an new self-replicating program developed by Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies in 1971. Creeper has used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers which are running on the TENEX operating system. Creeper gain admission via the ARPANET and banal itself to the isolated system where there was a message, Im the creeper, catch me if you can! was displayed. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper. A program called which is known as Elk Cloner was the first PC virus to appear in the uncultivated that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created by Richard Skrenta, it attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread via floppy disk. This virus, created as a practical joke when Skrenta was studying in the high school and was injected in a game on a floppy disk. On his 50th iterative use the Elk Cloner virus would be activate, which prone to infecting the PCs and displaying a short poem beginning Elk Cloner: The program with a personality. The first IBM PC virus in the natural was a boot sector virus dubbed and created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, seemingly to deter piracy of the software they had written. Before computer networks[7] became widespread, most viruses spread on removable media, particularly floppy disks. In the early days of the PCs, many users frequently exchanged their information and programs on floppies. Some of the viruses are spread by infecting programs which are stored on these disks, while others programs installed themselves into the disk boot sector, which ensure that they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk, usually inadvertently. Personal computers of the period would try to boot from the floppy at first if one had been left in the drive. Until floppy disks rejects, this was the most unbeaten infection strategy and that is why boot sector viruses were the most common in the wild for many years. Conventional computer viruses[6] emerge in the 1980s, that are driven by the spread of PCs and the consequential increase in BBS, modem use, and software sharing. Bulletin board-driven software giving out contributed directly to the swell of Trojan horse programs, and computer viruses which were written to infect readily traded software. Shareware and bootleg software were equally common vectors for viruses on BB Systems Viruses can increase their chances of spreading over the several other computers which in networks[7] by infecting the files on the particular network file system or a file system which can be access by other computers Macro viruses have become common since the mid-1990s. Most of these viruses are written in the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as MS-Word and MS-Excel and spread throughout Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets. Since Word processor and Excel spread sheets were also available for Mac OS, most could also spread to Macintosh computers. Although most of these computer viruses[6] may not have the capability to send contaminated email messages to those viruses which did take advantage of the Microsoft Outlook COM interface. Some old versions of Microsoft Word allow macros to repeat themselves with added blank lines. If two macro viruses concurrently infect a document, the combination of the two, if also self-replicating, can appear as a mating of the two and would likely be detected as a virus unique from the parents. A virus may also send a web address link as an instant message to all the contacts on an infected machine. If the recipient, thinking the link is from a friend which isa trusted source follows the link to the website, the virus hosted at the site may be able to infect this new computer and continue propagating. Viruses that spread using cross-site scripting were first reported in 2002, and were academically demonstrated in 2005.There have been multiple instances of the cross-site scripting viruses in the wild, exploiting websites such as MySpace and Yahoo!. 2.2 Classification In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs (see code injection). If a user attempts to begin an infected program, the virus code may be executed concurrently. Viruses can be separated into two types based on their performance when they are executed. Nonresident viruses straight away search for other hosts system or OS which can be infected, or infect those targets, and finally transfer organize to the application program they infected. Tenant viruses do not search for hosts when they are happening. Instead, a resident virus masses itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself. 2.2.1 Nonresident Viruses Nonresident viruses can be notion of as consisting of a finder module and a replication module. The finder module is responsible for finding new files to infect. For each new executable file the finder module encounters, it calls the replication module to infect that file. 2.2.2 Resident Viruses Resident viruses contain a replication module which is parallel to the one that is engaged by nonresident viruses. This section, however, is not called by a finder module. The virus[27] masses the duplication module into memory when it is executed instead and ensures that this module is executed each time the operating system is called to carry out a certain operation. The replication module can be called, for example, each time the operating system executes a file. In this case the virus infects every suitable program that is executed on the computer. Resident viruses are sometimes can be divided into a class of fast infectors and a class of slow infectors. Fast infectors are those which are designed to infect as many files as soon as possible. A fast infector, for instance, can infect every potential host file that is accessed. This pose a special difficulty when using anti-virus software[1], since a virus scanner will access every prospective host file on a computer when it performs a system-wide scan. If the virus scanner fails to notice that such a virus is present in memory the virus can piggy-back on the virus scanner and in this way infect all files that are scanned. Fast infectors rely on their fast infection rate to spread. The disadvantage of this method is that infecting many files may make detection more likely, because the virus may slow down a computer or perform many suspicious actions that can be noticed by anti-virus software. Slow infectors, on the other hand, are designed to infect hosts infrequently. Some slow infectors, for instance, only infect files when they are copied. Slow infectors are designed to avoid detection by limiting their actions: they are less likely to slow down a computer noticeably and will, at most, infrequently trigger anti-virus software[5] that detects suspicious behavior by programs. The slow infector approach, however, does not seem very successful. In most of the operating systems which use file extensions to determine program relations such as Microsoft Windows. The extensions may be normally hidden from the user by default. This makes it probable to create a file that is of a different type than it appears to the users or programmers. For example, an executable file may be created named picture.png.exe, in which the user sees only picture.png and therefore assumes that this file is an image and most likely is safe, yet when opened runs the executable on the client machine. An additional scheme is to generate the virus system from parts of existing operating system files by using the CRC16/CRC32 data. The initial code can be quite small (tens of bytes) and unpack a fairly large virus. This is analogous to a biological prion in the way it works but is vulnerable to signature based detection. This attack has not yet been seen in the wild. 2.3 Infection Strategies Virus avoids detection[31] by users, some viruses employ different kinds of deception. Some of the old viruses, especially on the MS-DOS operating system, make sure that the last modified date of a host file stays the same when the file is infected by the virus. This approach does not fool antivirus software, however, especially those which maintain and date cyclic redundancy checks on file changes. Some viruses can infect files without increasing their sizes or damaging the files. They accomplish this by overwriting unused areas of executable files. These are called cavity viruses. For example, the CIH virus, or Chernobyl Virus, infects Portable Executable files. Because those files have many empty gaps, the virus, which was 1 KB in length, did not add to the size of the file. Some viruses try to avoid detection by killing the tasks associated with antivirus software[1] before it can detect them. As computers and operating systems grow larger and more complex, old hiding techniques need to be updated or replaced. Defending a computer against viruses may demand that a file system migrate towards detailed and explicit permission for every kind of file access. 2.3.1 Read Request Intercepts While some antivirus software employ various techniques to counter stealth mechanisms, once the infection occurs any recourse to clean the system is unreliable. In Microsoft Windows operating systems, the NTFS file system is proprietary. Direct access to files without using the Windows OS is undocumented. This leaves antivirus software little alternative but to send a read request to Windows OS files that handle such requests. Some viruses trick antivirus[5] software by intercepting its requests to the OS. A virus can hide itself by intercepting the request to read the infected file, handling the request itself, and return an uninfected version of the file to the antivirus software. The interception can occur by code injection of the actual operating system files that would handle the read request. Thus, an antivirus software[1] attempting to detect the virus will either not be given permission to read the infected file, or, the read request will be served with the uninfected version of the same file. File hashes stored in Windows, to identify altered Windows files, can be overwritten so that the System File Checker will report that system files are originals. The only reliable method to avoid stealth is to boot from a medium that is known to be clean. Security software can then be used to check the dormant operating system files. Most security software relies on virus signatures or they employ heuristics, instead of also using a database of file hashes for Windows OS files. Using file hashes to scan for altered files would guarantee removing an infection. The security software can identify the altered files, and request Windows installation media to replace them with authentic versions. 2.3.2 Self-Modification Most modern antivirus programs try to find virus-patterns inside ordinary programs by scanning them for so-called virus signatures. Unfortunately, the term is misleading, in that viruses do not possess unique signatures in the way that human beings do. Such a virus signature is merely a sequence of bytes that an antivirus program looks for because it is known to be part of the virus. A better term would be search strings. Different antivirus programs[1] will employ different search strings, and indeed different search methods, when identifying viruses[6]. If a virus scanner finds such a pattern in a file, it will perform other checks to make sure that it has found the virus, and not merely a coincidental sequence in an innocent file, before it notifies the user that the file is infected. The user can then delete, or in some cases clean or heal the infected file. Some viruses employ techniques that make detection by means of signatures difficult but probably not impossible. These viru ses modify their code on each infection. That is, each infected file contains a different variant of the virus. 2.3.3 Encryption With A Variable Key A more advanced method is the use of simple encryption to encipher the virus. In this case, the virus consists of a small decrypting dependent methods and an encrypted copy of the virus code. If the virus is encrypted with the help of different key for each infected file, the only part of the virus that leftovers stable is the decrypting unit, which would (for example) be appended to the end. In this case, a virus scanner will not able to detect directly the virus using signatures, but it can still detect the decrypting unit, which still makes indirect revealing of the virus possible. Since these would be symmetric keys, stored on the infected host. In fact completely possible to decrypt the final virus, but this is almost certainly not required, since self-modifying code is such a scarcity that it may be basis for virus scanners to at least flag the file as suspicious. This may be old , but solid, encryption involves XORing each byte in a virus with a even, so that the exclusive-or operation has only to be frequent for decryption. It is doubtful for a code to adjust itself, so the code to do the encryption as wll as decryption may be part of the signature in many virus definition. 2.3.4 Polymorphic Code Polymorphic code was the first technique that posed a serious threat[27] to virus scanners. Likewise various normal encrypted viruses such as a polymorphic virus[15][16] infects files with an encrypted copy of itself, which may be decoded by a decryption method. In the case of polymorphic viruses or polymorphic worms[10], however, this decryption module is also modified on each infection. A well-written polymorphic virus thus has no parts which wait identical between infection, making it very difficult to detect directly using signatures. Antivirus software can detect it by decrypting the viruses using an emulator, or by statistical pattern analysis of the encrypted virus body. To enable polymorphic code, the virus has must have a polymorphic engine which is also called mutating engine or mutation engine anywhere in its encrypted body. Some viruses employ polymorphic code in a system that constrain the change rate of the virus appreciably. For example, a virus can be planned to alter only slightly over time, or it can be programmed to refrain from mutating when it infects a file on a computer that previously contains copies of the virus. The benefit of using such sluggish polymorphic[15][16] code is that it makes it more difficult for antivirus professionals to get representative sample of the virus, because tempt files that are infected in one run will naturally have identical or parallel sample of the virus. This will make it more liable that the detection by the virus scanner will be variable, and that some instances of the virus may be able to avoid detection. 2.3.5 Metamorphic Code To avoid being detected by emulation, some viruses revise themselves completely each time they are to infect new executables. Viruses that make use of this technique are said to be metamorphic. To enable metamorphism, a metamorphic engine must be needed. A metamorphic virus is usually very large and complex. For example, W32/Simile consists of over 15,000 lines of assembly language code, 90% of which is part of the metamorphic engine. 2.3.6 Avoiding Bait Files and other Undesirable Hosts A virus wants to infect hosts in order to multiply further. In some cases, it might be a bad idea to infect a mass program. For example, many antivirus softwares perform an integrity check of their own code. Infecting such programs will therefore increase the likelihood that the virus is detected. For this reason, some viruses are programmed not to infect programs that are known to be part of antivirus software. Another type of host that viruses[27] sometimes avoid are bait files. Bait files (or goat files) are files that are specially created by antivirus software, or by antivirus professionals themselves, to be infected by a virus. These files can be created for various reasons, all of which are related to the detection of the virus: Antivirus professionals can use tempt files to take a test of a virus. It is more realistic to store and exchange a small, infected lure file, than to swap a large application program that has been infected by the virus. Antivirus professionals can use bait files to study the actions of a virus and assess detection methods. This is particularly useful when the virus is polymorphic[15][16]. In this case, the virus can be made to infect a large number of entice files. The grimy files can be used to test whether a virus scanner detects all versions of the virus. Some antivirus software employ bait files that are accessed regularly. When these files are modified, the antivirus software warns the user that a virus is probably active on the system. Since bait files are used to detect the virus, or to make detection possible, a virus can benefit from not infecting them. Viruses typically do this by avoiding suspicious programs, such as small program files or programs that contain certain patterns of garbage instructions. A related strategy to make baiting difficult is sparse infection. Sometimes, sparse infectors do not infect a host file that would be a suitable candidate for infection in other circumstances. For example, a virus can decide on a random basis whether to infect a file or not, or a virus can only infect host files on particular days of the week. 2.4 Vulnerability and Countermeasures 2.4.1 The Vulnerability of Operating Systems to Viruses Just as genetic diversity in a population decreases the chance of a single disease wiping out a population, the diversity of software systems on a network similarly limits the destructive potential of viruses. This became a particular concern in the 1990s, when Microsoft gained market dominance in desktop operating systems and office suites. Microsoft software is targeted by virus writers due to their desktop dominance. Although Windows is by far the most popular target operating system for virus writers, viruses also exist on other platforms. Any operating system that allows third-party programs to run can theoretically run viruses. As of 2006, there were at least 60 known security exploits targeting the base installation of Mac OS X (with a Unix-based file system and kernel). The number of viruses[6] for the older Apple operating systems, known as Mac OS Classic, varies greatly from source to source, with Apple stating that there are only four known viruses, and independent sources stating there are as many as 63 viruses. Many Mac OS Classic viruses targeted the HyperCard authoring environment. The difference in virus vulnerability between Macs and Windows is a chief selling point, one that Apple uses in their Get a Mac advertising. In January 2009, Symantec announced the discovery of a Trojan that targets Macs. This discovery did not gain much coverage until April 2009. While Linux, and Unix in general, has always natively blocked normal users from having access to make changes to the operating system environment, Windows users are generally not. This difference has continued partly due to the widespread use of administrator accounts in contemporary versions like XP. In 1997, when a virus for Linux was released-known as Bliss-leading antivirus[5] vendors issued warnings that Unix-like systems could fall prey to viruses just like Windows. The Bliss virus may be considered characteristic of viruses-as opposed to worms-on Unix systems. Bliss requires that the user run it explicitly, and it can only infect programs that the user has the access to modify. Unlike Windows users, most Unix users do not log in as an administrator user except to install or configure software; as a result, even if a user ran the virus, it could not harm their operating system. The Bliss virus never became widespread, and remains chiefly a research curiosity. Its creator later posted the source code to Usenet, allowing researchers to see how it worked. 2.4.2 The Role of Software Development Because software is often designed with security features to prevent unauthorized use of system resources, many viruses must exploit software bugs in a system or application to spread. Software development strategies that produce large numbers of bugs will generally also produce potential exploits. 2.4.3 Anti-Virus Software and other Preventive Measures Many users install anti-virus software that can detect and eliminate known viruses after the computer downloads or runs the executable. There are two common methods that an anti-virus software application uses to detect viruses. The first, and by far the most common method of virus detection is using a list of virus signature definitions. This works by examining the content of the computers memory (its RAM, and boot sectors) and the files stored on fixed or removable drives (hard drives, floppy drives), and comparing those files against a database of known virus signatures. The disadvantage of this detection[32] method is that users are only protected from viruses that pre-date their last virus definition update. The second method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method has the ability to detect novel viruses that anti-virus security[7] firms have yet to create a signature for. Some anti-virus programs are able to scan opened files in addition to sent and received email messages on the fly in a similar manner. This practice is known as on-access scanning. Anti-virus software does not change the underlying capability of host software to transmit viruses. Users must update their software regularly to patch security holes. Anti-virus software also needs to be regularly updated in order to recognize the latest threats[27]. One may also minimize the damage done by viruses by making regular backups of data (and the operating systems) on different media, that are either kept unconnected to the system (most of the time), read-only or not accessible for other reasons, such as using different file systems. This way, if data is lost through a virus, one can start again using the backup (which should preferably be recent). If a backup session on optical media like CD and DVD is closed, it becomes read-only and can no longer be affected by a virus (so long as a virus or infected file was not copied onto the CD/DVD). Likewise, an operating system on a bootable CD can be used to start the computer if the installed operating systems become unusable. Backups on removable media must be carefully inspected before restoration. The Gammima virus, for example, propagates via removable flash drives. 2.4.4 Recovery Methods A number of recovery options exist after a computer has a virus. These actions depend on the virus. Some may be safely removed by functions available in most anti-virus software products. Others may require re-installation of damaged programs. It is necessary to know the characteristics of the virus involved to take the correct action, and anti-virus products will identify known viruses precisely before trying to dis-infect a computer; otherwise such action could itself cause a lot of damage. New viruses that anti-virus researchers have not yet studied therefore present an ongoing problem, which requires anti-virus packages[1] to be updated frequently. 2.4.5 Virus Removal One possibility on Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 is a tool known as System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint. Often a virus will cause a system to hang, and a subsequent hard reboot will render a system restore point from the same day corrupt. Restore points from previous days should work provided the virus is not designed to corrupt the restore files and does not exist in previous restore points. Some viruses disable System Restore and other important tools such as Task Manager and Command Prompt. An example of a virus that does this is Cia Door. Many such viruses can be removed by rebooting the computer, entering Windows safe mode , and then using system tools. Many websites run by anti-virus software companies provide free online virus scanning, with limited cleaning facilities (the purpose of the sites is to sell anti-virus products). Some websites allow a single suspicious file to be checked by many antivirus programs in one operation. Additionally, several capable antivirus software programs are available for free download from the internet (usually restricted to non-commercial use), and Microsoft provide a free anti-malware utility that runs as part of their regular Windows update regime. 2.4.6 Operating System Reinstallation Reinstalling any OS is another loom to virus removal. It involves either reformatting the computers hard disk drive and installing the operating system and