Simple Virus For Teaching?

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 6, 2010 @12:05PM from the my-first-malware dept.

ed1023 writes "Currently I am teaching a 101 class on computers. It is more of a 'demystifying the black box' type of class. The current topic is computer viruses; I am looking for a virus with which I can infect the lab computers (only connected to local network, no outside network connection) that would be easy for the students to remove by hand. Can the Slashdot community point me in any directions? Is there an executable out there that would work, or do I try to write one myself, or is there one that is written that I can compile myself?"

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DON'T DO IT! You'll get fired by CPE1704TKS · 2010-10-06 12:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

It sounds instructive, but you will probably get fired for lacking good judgement.
There are plenty of stories where teachers do similar things that end up getting them fired. Teaching students how to write viruses, faking a classroom kidnapping, how to plan a terrorist attack, etc.
Teaching your students how to write a virus is a classic case of bad judgement. Your superiors will tell you "What were you thinking?" and you will get let go.
Teach them verbally how viruses are created, but don't assign anything as homework.