Different Types of Malware and Viruses
Viruses Viruses cannot spread without the help of us humans. They are like parasites because they need a host to attach to and work through. The host is usually a legitimate-looking program or file. Once this program is launched, the virus is executed and infects other files on your computer. Viruses can be very destructive. They can damage your computer hardware, software, and files. Viruses are spread through the sharing of files and are often sent with emails via attachments. Worms A worm is a malicious program that can replicate itself onto other computers on a network. Unlike viruses, worms don’t need a human to be able to spread and infect systems. Once it infects a system, it uses that system to send other copies of itself to other random systems attempting to infect them. Trojan Horse A Trojan horse is a malicious program that can be used to do silly things to a system like changing its desktop, mess with the user interface, and take control of your mouse. It can also be used for some serious things like accessing your data, erasing your files, stealing your passwords, and capturing your keystrokes. Bacteria Bacteria make many copies of themselves and eventually end up taking up all of the computer’s resources, such as all of its processor power, memory, and disk space. This results in the user losing resources. Blended Threats Blended threats combine all of the above characteristics and use them along with the system vulnerabilities to spread and infect machines.
What is a Keylogger?
Keylogger is software that records the strokes of the keyboard. Every letter you type on the keyboard is stored in the keylogger program. Some hi-tech keyloggers can also record web history, take screenshots as well as webcam shots. They can also record your passwords and private chat history from Gtalk or Facebook. These stored logs are then sent to an email or FTP address as soon as the infected computer is connected to the internet. Thus the hacker can monitor your actions, get your user names and passwords, and a lot of other sensitive data just sitting at home. However, the keylogger is a passive tool that does not harm your computer or corrupt any files. It only monitors your computer. Win spy keylogger is a well-known keylogger.
What is RAT?
RAT is similar to a keylogger. In fact, the keylogger is a part of RAT— the most dangerous of all viruses! Like a keylogger, RAT records all activities of the computer where it is installed. But RAT is not passive. A hacker can use it to damage your computer by deleting files and installing malicious viruses on your computer remotely sitting far away at home. The hacker can shut down or restart your PC. He can also freeze your mouse and keyboard. Also, files on your computer are visible to the hacker, and hence important data can be stolen or deleted easily. Pro-RAT is one such deadly RAT.
Purpose of Anti-Virus
Anti-viruses can easily detect a keylogger or a RAT and quarantine it before it is installed on your PC. But hackers, too, are genius. They attach the virus to any other file such as text, video, or another program. This is done using binders and crypters. A hacker may attach the malware to a useful application, such as a game, and give it to the victim. The hacker may also tell you to disable anti-virus making some reason, such as ‘the program is cracked so please disable your anti-virus’ etc. But the hacker may also attach a virus along with the program. Thus your computer is infected. An anti-virus would find it difficult to remove the virus once it is installed. It is tough to differentiate normal software from virus-infected software as viruses have a tiny size, say 300KB, whereas software may be of size 500000KB.
Take these steps to safeguard from the attack of viruses and getting PC hacked
Have you ever inserted USB Drive and got Virus detected? Let us know about USB Viruses
USB viruses run automatically into your computer as soon as a USB pen drive is inserted into your computer. Within seconds all the data such as passwords and user names stored in your browser are stolen and saved in a pen drive file. And you don’t even know that your data is stolen. All types of malware spread through USB drives. Nowadays, various micro-size pen drives and USB drives are hidden in various forms, such as hand bands and necklaces. They have now become likes explosives that can be sniffed and plugged into computers. So we need to be extra careful about pendrive’s.
How to Avoid Offline or Internet Viruses?
Never plug in any pen drive, thumb drive, and memory sticks from unknown sources into your computer. Even when the USB is from a known source, make sure that it is virus-free by using anti-virus before you explore the Pendrive. You need not buy expensive anti-virus and upgrades. Several free anti-viruses also act equally well. Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Kaspersky Security Cloud have free Versions of Antivirus; you can download and install it for free. But we recommend that if you don’t visit any malicious websites, then Microsoft Defender Antivirus is perfect for you, don’t worry about getting Viruses to your PC or get hacked until and unless you visit any non-trusted websites. But if you are a User, who tends to visit malicious websites and non-trusted ones, make sure you have a Premium Antivirus installed on your PC. We hope you do like the article, do comment, and give us feedback so that we could post more articles based on these topics.
