20,000 New Viruses A Day In 2008

Object Name: RobertMarra_BobbyBrune_20000NewVirusesADayIn2008_V1.0

Title: 20,000 New Viruses Each Day in 2008
Creator: Robert Marra (Bobby Brune)

Date: Februrary 11, 2009

Summary: Last year was a huge year for cyber criminals - there were over 20,000 new malicious programs discovered every day in 2008. This number has been represented by 20 bugs, each representing 1,000 malicious programs, crawling through a virtual city of circuitry and information. The Earth rotates above the city, signifying the single day in which these viruses took hold, and shows bits of data traversing it at high speed to represent the world wide web.

News Sources: "'Boom year' for hi-tech criminals." BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7797280.stm.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJvZd5qtaX8

Interaction: By standing on the observation platform, one can enjoy a full fiew of the cyber cityscape, infested with malicious programs. Certain buildings within the city can be clicked for further information pertaining to specific parts of the web that they represent.

Motivation: Since its creation, the internet has become an indispensible part of our daily lives. Cyber crime is one of the largest threats to users of the internet, who can be attacked using the malicious programs talked about in the article. Cyber crime reached a record new high in 2008, and as we are all users of the internet we are also potential victims. Since there are numerous means to prevent attacks, hopefully this project will build awareness and promote proper protection of personal computers.

Description: The cityscape was inspired by the 1994-2001 TV series ReBoot, which featured a cast of virtual characters who lived within a hard-drive city inside a personal computer. The malicious software as insects is a play on the name of "worms," a type of virus that self-replicates and spreads throughout computer networks. As there is great variety among malicious programs, so is there a variety of bugs infesting the virtual city.