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Posts Tagged ‘worms’

Computer security threats have cost most people around $2000 to buy a new laptop. When the threats are infecting their computer, they cannot do anything and have to buy a new computer. Have you ever wondering why your computer is running slow? Or why your memory usage is always 100%? Or are you getting the same pop-up every time you open your web browser? These are caused by the nasty threats that lurk in your computer.

Therefore, computer security is important to all Internet users. These threats bring nothing but trouble and it can also cost you your personal and confidential information. There are ways to remove the threats that didn’t cost you near a price of a laptop. But, before you learn how to remove the threats, first you must know what the threats are.

In this article, I will explain ten must-know threats for any computer and Internet users.

1. Internet Worms

Internet worms are programs that can affect another computer on the same network and it works differently from virus. It doesn’t need to attach itself to another programs to be harmful and can create an exact copy of itself. Worms spread via network and consume bandwidth. Have you ever wondering why your network connection becomes so slow? It might be because of the worms. Worms can have many malicious effects such as causing a server to crash, make a user’s files unusable, or creating a backdoor on target computer.

2. Rootkit

Rootkit can hide it presence in a computer and can avoid detection while running its utilities. It can create a backdoor on target computer and allow hacker to send spam emails or use the target computer to perform denial-of-service attack on servers. Detecting it is difficult as it can conceal its presence in a computer. One way to detect it is by running virus scanner while it’s not running. In this case, running the antivirus before the system boots the hard disk.

3. Zombies

When a virus or trojan has infected a user’s computer, it will open a ‘backdoor’ to allow hackers use the infected computer for malicious purpose without the owner knowledge. This infected computer is called the zombie. Furthermore, the hacker can sell the target computer access to others and others can use if for their own p 1000 urpose. If a spammer has gained an access to the target computer, it will use it to send spam.

4. Browser Hijacker

A browser hijacker can change your browser home page or search pages in your browser. In worse cases, it can disable your internet option so you cannot change the home page to the default home page. Furthermore, the browser hijacker can edit the registry so it can run every time you restart the Windows.

5. Email Virus

Email virus can distribute itself using email as an attachment. When you open the attachment, it will launch the virus and the virus will use the target computer to send the same email with the same attachment to other computer. It can also find files containing email addresses in the target computer and send the same email to the email addresses that it found. Sometimes, it can launch itself when the user views the email even though the user didn’t launch the attachment.

6. Mousetrapping

Was there a time when you cannot leave a website? This is called mousetrapping. The website will use a script preventing the Internet user from leaving the website. Sometimes, it will open a new browser and will display the same website. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to disable java script so the script no longer working.

7. Phishing

This is another threat that we faced online. Phishing is a term comes from fishing because the phisher will try to obtain your private information using bogus emails or bogus websites. If the phishers want to obtain your PayPal username and password, they will create a website that is the exact copy of PayPal and will email you asking you to enter your username and password using the link provided. The link they provided in the email will not go to PayPal, instead, it will go to the phishing website and if you enter your username and password, they will use it to get your money out of PayPal.

8. Spam

Spam is the junk emails or bulk emails send by the spammer to numerous recipients aimed to advertise something, scam, or sending virus. Spam can disguise itself as a personal email to bypass the spam blocker. Some spams do no harm but it’s a waste of time deleting it and it’s also annoying.

9. Spyware

A spyware is software used by hackers and advertisers to gain information about you. When visiting certain websites, you’re asked to install this type of software or updates that you need and the updates that you installed are actually spyware. Spyware can also install itself in your computer and it consumes memory usage and will slow down your computer.

10. Adware

Software that displays advertisement in your computer is adware and some of it installed itself in your computer without you knowing. However, not all adware are bad. Some of it is used to advertise something to fund the company. This type of adware will ask and tell you that they will install software that will display related advertisement in your computer. But, adware is a problem if it’s too difficult to uninstall, or it installed itself without you knowing, or it hijack your web browser and slow down your computer. This type of adware needs to be removed.

Bunch of Alerts on Computer Security Threats

Wow, today is a busy day. So many news and threats to alert you about. I decided to combine today’s stories on computer security to this one post so I don’t bombard you, RSS subs…   Read more…

System Security Virus the Latest Cyber Threat

Amy Nutt. In the past decade, computer hackers have gotten much more sophisticated in their predatory efforts to steal your identity. Despite spending millions of dollars on anti-viral softwar…   Read more…

AZ of Computer Security Threats

Here is a great downloadable guide from Sophos Labs that was created a couple of years ago to help educate arou fef nd computer security threats. In addition to an overview of the many differen…   Read more…

Technorati Tags: adwares, computer threats, hijackers, rootkits, security threats, spywares, virus, worms

The computer virus is almost as old as the personal computer. What started off as a joke between software engineers has evolved into an uncontrollable beast. In the mid 1990’s computer viruses ran wild and held even big organizations like Yahoo in it’s claws. The thrill and challenge for software engineers to ‘beat’ antivirus software drove them to create some pretty nasty software.

Fortunately the law intervened and along with anti-virus software the threat posed by computer viruses was soon under control. However, today’s computer threats span much further than mere viruses. The 2 big culprits are Adware and Spyware and in many ways they are more dangerous that computer viruses.

While most people use the term computer virus to loosely define all software threats, it’s not entire correct. Malware is probably a more accurate definition. Maware basically comes from MALicious SoftWARE – software that was created with the main purpose of destroying, harming or stealing.

Virusses, adware and spyware can all be defined as malicious software. Their sole intention is to either get some sort of data from your computer or to attack some aspect of your computer’s operating system.

Malicious threats can be classified into 3 main areas: viruses, adware and spyware. They are all different yet most people confuse them to be the same thing.

The Common Computer Virus

Everybody is well aware of computer viruses. While most people still use the term virus loosely for every kind of malicious infection. The fact of the matter is that computer viruses aren’t as big a threat anymore. Most Anti-virus software today will give you plenty of protection.

There are still a lot of viruses out there – especially on email attachments and dodgy websites, but for the most part the creators of these viruses moved on to something more important – making money. This is where adware and spyware applications comes in.

Adware

Adware started out as legitimate software installations that often came with purchased applications. The adware software was designed as a way to communicate with the users and to gather data to help improve the software or fix bugs. Unfortunately this ‘good intention’ became twisted and adware today is just completely a 1000 busing this concept.

Without you knowing it, you probably agreed to have that adware installed on your computer. The agreement is usually hidden in some dense Terms and Conditions document that no one ever reads. Most free software these days come with the hidden agenda of Adware and by deploying advertising on your computer they can make a lot of money.

Adware has become quite sophisticated and can gather a lot of your personal information that they can use to advertise to you. Virtually all pop-ups are adware. It can be extremely annoying, slow your computer down and getting rid of them can be a real nightmare – even with adware remover software.

Spyware

Spyware is sneaky. It’s clever and operates under stealth. It can install itself on your computer without your knowledge or your consent. While Adware is mainly designed to advertise to you, Spyware wants to steal from you.

Don’t You Just Hate Viruses, Spywares and more?

I reckon that most of us are all aware of virus, trojan, worms, spywares, adwares and other nasty programs that can disrupt the normal functioning of our everyday computing. Sometimes our simpl…   Read more…

Your pc at home can be attacked by spywares

your pc at home can be attacked by spywares, adwares, and malwares by basically installing itself on your pc without you having any idea. it can be messing around as it infiltrates your privacy…   Read more…

How Can Adwares Affect The Computers?

H fef ave you noticed that your computer is slowing down? Or do you notice that your hard drive is starting to be full without you saving any recent files? Your computer could have infected by adwares…   Read more…

Technorati Tags: adwares, computer virus, security threat, spywares, virus, worms