What Is Malware?
Malware is defined as any software created with the sole purpose of causing more or less serious damage to the computer on which it runs. The term comes from the contraction of the words malicious and software, and therefore the literal meaning of “program evil”, is also known as malicious code.
The spread of such software is constantly increasing. It is estimated that in 2008 only one year on the Internet are shot about 15 million of malware, including those circulated between the months of January and August are the sum of the previous 17 years, and these numbers will likely increase.
Categories Of Malware
Are distinguished several categories of malware, though often these programs are composed of several parts interdependent, and therefore belong to more than one class. Furthermore, given the rapid developments in this field, the classification presented below is not to be exhaustive.
- Virus: they are pieces of code that spreads by copying itself into other programs, or in a particular section of the hard drive in order to be executed each time the infected file is opened. A virus program travels from one computer to another via the movement of infected files by users.
- Worm: they do not need malware to infect other files to spread, because changing the operating system of the host machine to be executed automatically, and groped to replicate using mostly the Internet. To induce you to run them using social engineering techniques, or exploiting the defects (bugs) of some programs to spread automatically. Their purpose is to slow down the system with useless or harmful operations.
- Trojan horses: software that besides having the functionality “lawful”, useful to induce you to use, contain malicious instructions that are executed without the user. Not have auto-replication, so spread must be knowingly sent to the victim. The name comes from the famous Trojan horse.
- Backdoor: literally “back door”. Are programs which allow unauthorized access to the system you are running. Typically spread in combination with a trojan or a worm, or are a form of emergency access to a system, for example to cater for the recovery of a forgotten password.
- Spyware: Software that is used to gather information from the system on which they are installed and to transmit to a beneficiary. Information carp may go up from surfing habits to passwords and encryption keys for a user.
- Dialer: these programs are responsible for managing the connection to the Internet via the normal telephone line. Malwares are quite dangerous programs as they are used in fraudulent manners, changing the number dialed by the connection with a default set rates in order to reap illegal profits without your knowledge.
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