Surrenderme
Eternal Poster
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2018
- Posts
- 1,196
- Reaction
- 1,152
- Points
- 412
- Age
- 24
Malware, viruses, and worms – A look at the “virtual diseases” of electronic devices.
Table of Contents:
Thread introduction
Whether it is surfing the Internet, opening an email, or executing a file, our devices can be exposed to all sort of ill-disposed programs and malicious codes that, once running on your personal computer, can do funny things that quickly stop being funny and become a nightmare compromising the integrity of your documents and other personal stuffs you have in your hard drive or any external mass storage device, such a pen drive or a microSD card. These programs come in a variety of types, and with them, a bunch of names to identify them. You may have heard of malwares, viruses, trojans, *********s, spyware, worms, adwares, and the list can go on and on. But just as a real virus differs from a bacteria, so the worm is different from the trojan. There’s a lot to cover when talking about this topic, and a lot of these already done in many blogs, forums, e-magazines, etc., but since our purpose is to make it friendly and easy to understand, we’ll be covering what are those, their differences, and what to do to protect your computer.
Malware
Malware is just a conjunction of the words “Malicious” and “Software”. It is a term used to refer at all those harmful and hostile programs that will do bad things in someone’s pc, like accessing their private files, giving a third party full control of the infected device, tracking and recording all the keyboard inputs, or just spamming your screen with junk ads and useless stuff. As we said earlier, they come in a wide variety of types and purposes, but ultimately, they’ll do no good to you. It is important for you to know this, because people tend to refer to any malicious program as viruses or worms, when in fact, the right term to talk about them, in general, is malware. If you’re not sure about what just crawled onto your pc, you may say “malware” instead of “virus” or “worm” in a generic form. There are a lot of malware types, and definitely, you don’t want your pc to get infected with any of them. Some of them are worms, viruses, trojans, adwares, spywares, etc. This time we’ll be covering just a few of the above: Worms, Viruses, Trojans and Spyware as they are the most commonly used in attacks.
Worms
These annoying malwares are programs coded in a way that allows them to replicate itself on the host pc, and spread all across the available storage space of your hard drive disk and even to others computers via network by taking advantage of any security vulnerability found in their way, with the sole purpose of keeping its cycle of replicating and spreading endlessly. And that’s it. The annoying thing about them is that they turn your computer and network slow because of the high cpu and bandwidth usage, which certainly sucks. Common modes of connected transport for computer worms include attachments, file sharing networks and links to infected websites. Since worms exploit vulnerabilities, it’s vital to stay on top of security updates and patches. Security software is highly recommended for all computers, as is the additional precaution of a firewall.
Viruses
A virus is like a worm’s older brother: not only replicates itself but also mess up with your files by altering or corrupting them via injection of their own code. It is way more harmful than the previous one, but unlike a worm, a virus can’t just get into your computer and start coughing its viruses all over your pictures and videos; they need the user’s intervention, that is, the person has to open or execute the file the virus came attached to, so it can release all of its furies. Depending on how aggressive its coding is, it can just hide itself and replicates endlessly with no other purpose whatsoever, or do nasty things like hiding away your files, corrupting your documents, s†éáling your private data and even rendering your computer useless by infecting and destroying vital files of your disk drive, and taking over your computer even from early stage of pc booting.
Trojans
You’ve probably heard the tale of the Trojan horse, a big wooden statue in the shape of a horse hiding inside a group of Greek soldiers that managed to enter the impenetrable city of Troy, opening the gates for the rest of the army to come in and destroy everything. Well, imagine something similar happening to you, but instead of a wooden statue filled with humans, it’s just a malware trying to deceive you into downloading and/or opening a seemingly genuine program or file. Once you do this, you basically give a controller (the guy who made the trojan) full access to your computer, so he can do whatever he wants. If you like to, you may see it as a virus but without the spreading factor, because it can be as destructive as such, but it’s not programmed to replicate itself. Backdoor Trojan - These Trojans can create a “backdoor” on a users’ computer, allowing the attacker access to the machine in order to control it, upload stolen data and even download more malware onto the computer. Here are a list of different trojans you can research: Downloader Trojan - The main purpose of these Trojans are to download additional content onto the infected computer, such as additional pieces of malware. Infostealer Trojan - This Trojan’s main objective is to s†éál data from the infected computer. Remote Access Trojan - This Trojan is designed to give the attacker full control over the computer. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack Trojan - This Trojan performs DDoS attacks, which are designed to take down a network by flooding it with traffic.
Spyware
A spyware is what you can picture of this term: a malware intended to “spy” on your device activity such as logins, internet surfing habits, user data, messages sent and received… You name it. This can be installed and running on your device with or without your concern, and any collected data will be sent to the guy that set up this malicious software.
Usually, they spread by using stratagems involving downloading genuine programs with the malware attached to. Or they can use old and trusty Internet Explorer’s plethora of security flaws and vulnerabilities to install a tiny little spy that’ll be whispering to its master all of your personal data and habits. The user can also be tricked into installing the spyware through a Trojan horse as well as it pretending to be a free piece of security software. Spyware authors have been known to pay shareware developers to bundle their spyware with the legitimate software as well as simply repackaging freeware and bundling it with their own spyware. Drive-by downloading is another method used to install spyware on an unsuspecting user’s computer.
Vulnerabilities
All of those malwares have one thing in common, and it has been pointed out all along the guide: spreading through security flaws, or vulnerabilities. These are weaknesses in a system’s design, usually because of lack of exhaustive testing or inadequate security awareness of personnel in charge, but other factors may come in when analyzing security breaching causes, like complexity of large system, connectivity between large amounts of devices, weak passwords, software flaws and bugs, and even humanity itself, through social engineering and deceiving tactics. Whether they use one or two, or even all of them, they can lead to disastrous consequences for your computer. Is like having a hole in the wall of your house, an invitation to rob your house. The worst thing of all is, a lot of the time people in charge of vulnerability management is aware of bugs even at early stages of development, so even if you’re trying hard to be careful and having your system up to date, a third party’s negligence can make you lose everything.
Prevention
Of course this won’t be a beginners’ guide about malware without preventive measures, and here you’ll find some tips to bear in mind if you wish to keep your computer safe and sound. First, always update your system. Usually developers release patches or updates that fix bugs and holes left by a previous version, so your chances of getting infected are reduced.
Second, install an anti-virus. Although Windows comes now with a regular anti-malware of its own called Windows Security Essentials, it is better if you reinforce your computer’s security with another anti-virus. There are a lot of free, good anti-virus programs like Avast or Avira, which will provide you with decent protection against most of the commons malwares out there, thanks to their on-going virus database updates, and security measures like anti-spyware, quarantine vault, and real-time scanner. Of course there are way better anti-malware programs in the market, but they have a cost, so if you’re willing to spend a few dollars, you can get yourself a powerful shield like BitDefender, considered one of the best of its kind.
Last, but not least, is you. Yes, you are probably the most important factor in this security measures. You have to be aware of what websites you’re visiting, what kind of e-mails you’re opening, or what type of program you’re downloading or executing. And if you’re careful enough, chances are your system and all of you private files and data will be secure.
Firewall
A firewall is a vital line of resistance for your PC: it monitors incoming and active movement to check whether it could be malevolent, and will alarm you if something suspicious is being transmitted. Contingent upon your settings, it might offer to give you a chance to permit or square associations from particular areas or applications. You may have to do some looking around before you find a service that’s working, but it’s definitely worth putting in a bit of effort to see if your firewall is safe. For the most part, setting up and maintaining a firewall is done automatically, and you don’t have to do very much to keep it going. In fact, you could have a firewall up and running without even knowing about it.
DISCLAIMER: Look through the thread as i will be adding content due to the character restrictions implemented. Part 2 consists of the most informations.
Comment down below your thoughts.
peace
-menin
Eshekedet
-Team Anonymous
Anonymous
Table of Contents:
- Malware
- Worms
- Viruses
- Trojans
- Spyware
- Vulnerabilities
- Prevention
- Firewall
- Avoid Spam
- Digital footprint
- Securing your computer
- Passwords in Web Browsers
- Keep Programs Up-to-Date
Thread introduction
Whether it is surfing the Internet, opening an email, or executing a file, our devices can be exposed to all sort of ill-disposed programs and malicious codes that, once running on your personal computer, can do funny things that quickly stop being funny and become a nightmare compromising the integrity of your documents and other personal stuffs you have in your hard drive or any external mass storage device, such a pen drive or a microSD card. These programs come in a variety of types, and with them, a bunch of names to identify them. You may have heard of malwares, viruses, trojans, *********s, spyware, worms, adwares, and the list can go on and on. But just as a real virus differs from a bacteria, so the worm is different from the trojan. There’s a lot to cover when talking about this topic, and a lot of these already done in many blogs, forums, e-magazines, etc., but since our purpose is to make it friendly and easy to understand, we’ll be covering what are those, their differences, and what to do to protect your computer.
Malware
Malware is just a conjunction of the words “Malicious” and “Software”. It is a term used to refer at all those harmful and hostile programs that will do bad things in someone’s pc, like accessing their private files, giving a third party full control of the infected device, tracking and recording all the keyboard inputs, or just spamming your screen with junk ads and useless stuff. As we said earlier, they come in a wide variety of types and purposes, but ultimately, they’ll do no good to you. It is important for you to know this, because people tend to refer to any malicious program as viruses or worms, when in fact, the right term to talk about them, in general, is malware. If you’re not sure about what just crawled onto your pc, you may say “malware” instead of “virus” or “worm” in a generic form. There are a lot of malware types, and definitely, you don’t want your pc to get infected with any of them. Some of them are worms, viruses, trojans, adwares, spywares, etc. This time we’ll be covering just a few of the above: Worms, Viruses, Trojans and Spyware as they are the most commonly used in attacks.
Worms
These annoying malwares are programs coded in a way that allows them to replicate itself on the host pc, and spread all across the available storage space of your hard drive disk and even to others computers via network by taking advantage of any security vulnerability found in their way, with the sole purpose of keeping its cycle of replicating and spreading endlessly. And that’s it. The annoying thing about them is that they turn your computer and network slow because of the high cpu and bandwidth usage, which certainly sucks. Common modes of connected transport for computer worms include attachments, file sharing networks and links to infected websites. Since worms exploit vulnerabilities, it’s vital to stay on top of security updates and patches. Security software is highly recommended for all computers, as is the additional precaution of a firewall.
Viruses
A virus is like a worm’s older brother: not only replicates itself but also mess up with your files by altering or corrupting them via injection of their own code. It is way more harmful than the previous one, but unlike a worm, a virus can’t just get into your computer and start coughing its viruses all over your pictures and videos; they need the user’s intervention, that is, the person has to open or execute the file the virus came attached to, so it can release all of its furies. Depending on how aggressive its coding is, it can just hide itself and replicates endlessly with no other purpose whatsoever, or do nasty things like hiding away your files, corrupting your documents, s†éáling your private data and even rendering your computer useless by infecting and destroying vital files of your disk drive, and taking over your computer even from early stage of pc booting.
Trojans
You’ve probably heard the tale of the Trojan horse, a big wooden statue in the shape of a horse hiding inside a group of Greek soldiers that managed to enter the impenetrable city of Troy, opening the gates for the rest of the army to come in and destroy everything. Well, imagine something similar happening to you, but instead of a wooden statue filled with humans, it’s just a malware trying to deceive you into downloading and/or opening a seemingly genuine program or file. Once you do this, you basically give a controller (the guy who made the trojan) full access to your computer, so he can do whatever he wants. If you like to, you may see it as a virus but without the spreading factor, because it can be as destructive as such, but it’s not programmed to replicate itself. Backdoor Trojan - These Trojans can create a “backdoor” on a users’ computer, allowing the attacker access to the machine in order to control it, upload stolen data and even download more malware onto the computer. Here are a list of different trojans you can research: Downloader Trojan - The main purpose of these Trojans are to download additional content onto the infected computer, such as additional pieces of malware. Infostealer Trojan - This Trojan’s main objective is to s†éál data from the infected computer. Remote Access Trojan - This Trojan is designed to give the attacker full control over the computer. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack Trojan - This Trojan performs DDoS attacks, which are designed to take down a network by flooding it with traffic.
Spyware
A spyware is what you can picture of this term: a malware intended to “spy” on your device activity such as logins, internet surfing habits, user data, messages sent and received… You name it. This can be installed and running on your device with or without your concern, and any collected data will be sent to the guy that set up this malicious software.
Usually, they spread by using stratagems involving downloading genuine programs with the malware attached to. Or they can use old and trusty Internet Explorer’s plethora of security flaws and vulnerabilities to install a tiny little spy that’ll be whispering to its master all of your personal data and habits. The user can also be tricked into installing the spyware through a Trojan horse as well as it pretending to be a free piece of security software. Spyware authors have been known to pay shareware developers to bundle their spyware with the legitimate software as well as simply repackaging freeware and bundling it with their own spyware. Drive-by downloading is another method used to install spyware on an unsuspecting user’s computer.
Vulnerabilities
All of those malwares have one thing in common, and it has been pointed out all along the guide: spreading through security flaws, or vulnerabilities. These are weaknesses in a system’s design, usually because of lack of exhaustive testing or inadequate security awareness of personnel in charge, but other factors may come in when analyzing security breaching causes, like complexity of large system, connectivity between large amounts of devices, weak passwords, software flaws and bugs, and even humanity itself, through social engineering and deceiving tactics. Whether they use one or two, or even all of them, they can lead to disastrous consequences for your computer. Is like having a hole in the wall of your house, an invitation to rob your house. The worst thing of all is, a lot of the time people in charge of vulnerability management is aware of bugs even at early stages of development, so even if you’re trying hard to be careful and having your system up to date, a third party’s negligence can make you lose everything.
Prevention
Of course this won’t be a beginners’ guide about malware without preventive measures, and here you’ll find some tips to bear in mind if you wish to keep your computer safe and sound. First, always update your system. Usually developers release patches or updates that fix bugs and holes left by a previous version, so your chances of getting infected are reduced.
Second, install an anti-virus. Although Windows comes now with a regular anti-malware of its own called Windows Security Essentials, it is better if you reinforce your computer’s security with another anti-virus. There are a lot of free, good anti-virus programs like Avast or Avira, which will provide you with decent protection against most of the commons malwares out there, thanks to their on-going virus database updates, and security measures like anti-spyware, quarantine vault, and real-time scanner. Of course there are way better anti-malware programs in the market, but they have a cost, so if you’re willing to spend a few dollars, you can get yourself a powerful shield like BitDefender, considered one of the best of its kind.
Last, but not least, is you. Yes, you are probably the most important factor in this security measures. You have to be aware of what websites you’re visiting, what kind of e-mails you’re opening, or what type of program you’re downloading or executing. And if you’re careful enough, chances are your system and all of you private files and data will be secure.
Firewall
A firewall is a vital line of resistance for your PC: it monitors incoming and active movement to check whether it could be malevolent, and will alarm you if something suspicious is being transmitted. Contingent upon your settings, it might offer to give you a chance to permit or square associations from particular areas or applications. You may have to do some looking around before you find a service that’s working, but it’s definitely worth putting in a bit of effort to see if your firewall is safe. For the most part, setting up and maintaining a firewall is done automatically, and you don’t have to do very much to keep it going. In fact, you could have a firewall up and running without even knowing about it.
DISCLAIMER: Look through the thread as i will be adding content due to the character restrictions implemented. Part 2 consists of the most informations.
Comment down below your thoughts.
peace
-menin
Eshekedet
-Team Anonymous
Anonymous
armanx13
Addict
codeError
Forum Veteran
HeartStealer
Addict
Jebi
Addict
kkazuto111
Addict
kolinz
Honorary Poster
mark_bhe_18
Addict
R A L P H
Eternal Poster
remobaview
Eternal Poster
Surrenderme
Honorary Poster
thanskie07
Honorary Poster
TheSilent
Enthusiast
The_killer 01
Eternal Poster
Thiel
Addict
vinsmoke29
Enthusiast
Wooty-PHC
Honorary Poster
Your Account
Forum Guru
Zipeee04
Journeyman
Last edited by a moderator: