MALWARE

MALWARE

1. Malware is short for 'malicious software'. Malware is a general term for any hostile or intrusive software

2. Virus

   • This is a piece of code that is designed to replicate itself throughout the computer or network, For example it will add itself to a file on your computer and, every time the file is opened, the virus runs and once more seeks out other files to infect. A virus will often be designed to delete or corrupt data.

3. Worm

   • This behaves just like a virus, but does not necessarily harm files. Instead, it tries to copy itself so many times that the whole system runs out of resources and crashes.

4. Trojan

   • Named after the famous Greek story of the Trojan Horse. A trojan appears to be a harmless application - a downloaded game for example. You play the game, but meanwhile it is running in the background carrying out its real intent - maybe letting someone else access to your computer.

5. Spyware

   • Spyware stays hidden out of view and is designed to spy on your computer, looking for personal information, passwords and so on. It does this by using a key logger to record every key pressed on the keyboard. It might also take screen shots. This information is then sent secretly over the internet to the criminals

6. Scareware

   • Scareware will cause a pop-up to appear on your screen which will say something like 'Your computer has a virus. To clear the problem please purchase this software', and a link is provided in the pop-up. In reality, you do not actually have a virus. The scareware it trying to frighten you into purchasing and downloading the software which itself may actually contain malware.

7. Rootkits

   • Rootkits give other people permissions and access to your computer, allowing them to take it over remotely and do whatever they like. It is designed to run even before the operating system itself is booted up and it continues to stay active in the background while you are using the computer.