4. Conclusion

The risk of infection from computer viruses is very real, and represents one of today's greatest threats. However, it should no longer be considered in isolation, but within the broader perspective of network security, applications, protocols, critical infrastructures... In other words, the fight against viral risk cannot be waged without constant technological monitoring. The periodic discovery of vulnerabilities that can be exploited by infectious programs, and the publication of the corresponding patches, must be known to the company's IT security manager. Let's take a look at some edifying figures: the vulnerability in IIS web servers that enabled the CodeRed worm to spread, and its patch, were published a month before the worm attack (almost 400,000 servers infected worldwide). The vulnerability used by the Sapphire/Slammer worm (January 2003) and its patch were available six months...