One of the most significant threats to computers today is malicious software. Malicious software, also known as malware, is defined as any unwanted program that means you harm and is transmitted to your computer without you knowledge or consent. Malware is used to damage computer software, files, and to steal personal information. Malware comes in many forms, and in order to stay ahead of the threat, computer users need to be aware of the different types of malware that exist. Viruses are probably the most well-known type of malware. Computer viruses are software programs that are deliberately designed to interfere with computer operation (www.microsoft.com). Viruses are programs that attach themselves to other programs in order to reproduce and cause harm. When the infected program is ran and installed, the virus then activates and spreads itself to other programs that are installed on the computer in order to harm your computer system (www.wisegeek.org). The program might be an application, a macro document, a Windows system file, or a boot loader program (Andrews, 900).
Two well-known viruses are boot sector viruses and rootkits. These viruses affect a computer’s operating system. A boot sector virus is a virus that hides in the MBR program in the boot sector of a hard drive or in an OS boot loader program (Andrews, 900). A rootkit is a virus that loads itself before the OS boot is complete. A rootkit can hide folders that contain software it has installed and can hijack
Memory Resident Virus is one type, they usually fix themselves inside the computer memory. They get activated every
Antivirus is programming program that outline to make PC gradually in light of the fact that programmer can be take the secret word and furthermore the records can be erase frame desktop and imperative things like video and picture there case about that treats, worms and Trojans.
Malware consists of viruses which are programs that attach themselves to legitimate programs on a victim’s machine. Worms are standalone programs that do not attach themselves to other programs. Direct propagation words take advantage of vulnerabilities in software. Blended threats propagate both as viruses and worms however; they post themselves on websites for people to download unwillingly. The payrolls are being nine they merely pop up Ace message on the victims computer screen or do something unknowing but nonlethal damage. Trojan horses, hides itself by deleting a system file and taking on the system file name. Remote access Trojan gives the attacker remote control of your computer. These items mentioned above do not rename themselves they can cause great damage or be just a nuisance.
Let’s say user (A) download an execution file (EXE) on his-her PC and double click on that file, if this file is infected the virus works based on the written code by the hacker/ attacker/ intruder and copy some files into the system. In case, user (A) does not have virus protection, the virus works perfect in destroying that computer or sending information from this computer to the attacker email. Viruses not only designed to destroy PC’s, but also designed to get information from
Rootkit – Rootkit is a software that is downloaded onto a computer to ide the compromised operating system. This can allow other viruses or malware to come and make it look like it’s a necessary file for the computer. Even if you use an anti-virus, it will look at it but will think it’s a necessary file for the computer. The longer the rootkit is installed the harder it is to undo the damages
Computer virus is a program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user. Viruses perform some type of harmful activity such as accessing private information or corrupting
The new form of criminals that sit behind a desk in slipper and being able to steal personal information by using malware. It may seem unbelievable that your identity can be easily stole from you owe personal computer. One of the best ways to avoid a computer from being infected from a malware is to avoid opening any unfamiliar documents on your computer. Any emails that is unknown delete and do not open.
Computer viruses have been around just about as long as the personal computer has existed. With the advent of the Internet, the ability of viruses to rapidly spread has increased substantially. Despite this increase in capability to infect large numbers of computers across international borders, the definition of a computer virus has not substantially changed over
Viruses get into the computer system by many different ways, it can be through downloading infected files online, opening unknown links or downloading attachments files from emails.
Viruses and worms are malicious programs that self-replicate on computers or through computer systems without the user being cognizant. Worms are a series programs that repeat themselves from system to system minus the use of a host fie. Worms use methods to infiltrate remote computers and launch replicas of themselves like email messages or coping files to an accessible disk. A computer virus is a
Computer viruses are minute program which is “embedded inside an application or within a data file which can copy itself into another program“(Adams et al, 2008 ) for the sole determination of meddling with normal computer operations. The consequences may range from corruption and deletion of data; propagation of virus on to network and deployment through attachments through emails in order to further creating havoc to all associated computing devices.
To understand the business of malware, one must understand how malware has evolved in the past twenty-five years. Malware, which includes all kinds of malicious software, was originally created to show the weaknesses of computers. The first type of malware, created in 1986, was a virus called “Brain.A. Brain.A was developed in Pakistan, by two brothers - Basit and Amjad. They wanted to prove that PC is not secure platform, so they created virus that was replicating using floppy disks” (Milošević). Even today malware is still used to check the security of machines.
There are an enormous amount of malicious software programs. The most common types are known as viruses and spyware. Spyware has
There are special viruses that creates different types of malicious problems on a network or computer, for instance it will create or open programs to perform tasks. Viruses is also used for denial of service attacks, password cracking and many more. This can be fought against by having a reliable protection service; it is safer if this is taken from the provider itself.
Many types of computer virus has been spreading in computers since 1960. The first a computer virus discovered in 1970 and called The Creeper virus on Arpanet browser (anon, 2013)