Introduction:

Def: “The protection of software, hardware, and data resources connected and stored on the Internet is known as
the cybersecurity”.

The protection of the personal, financial data, commercial data, business-critical information, operational
continuity, data integrity, and availability of online software services fall in the cybersecurity domain.

Regulating the physical access and controlling the malicious intrusion, allowing the authorized access, encrypting
the valuable information, and safeguarding the privacy are the components of cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity widely relates to the technological processes and procedures to keep the valuable data and software
resources safe and secure from the external threats emerging through the Internet, but the physical security is also
a big component that affects the cybersecurity both directly and indirectly.

The availability, integrity, and confidentiality of those software resources make your life run smoothly. The failure of
any of the above three major components – integrity, availability, and confidentiality, will bring our entire life to a
halt.

With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the automation of home, factories, commercial areas,
buildings, places, and many other installations is becoming a very commonplace practice. Thus, the entire physical
security of any installation will also be influenced by the cybersecurity threats through the Internet.

Cybersecurity can be classified into multiple elements as mentioned below:

• Network security (NS)
• Information security (IS)
• Application security (AS)
• Business continuity planning (BCP)/disaster recovery
• Leadership commitment
• Operational security (OPSEC)
• End-user education

Importance cyber security:

The history of cybersecurity is very old, which dates back to 1903 when an insulting message coded in the Morse
code was sent out to the John A Fleming by Nevil Maskelyne. This message marks as the first cyberattack in the
form of malicious communication.

According to the Cybersecurity Ventures latest predictions, the cost of global damages incurred due to the
cybercrimes will cross the US$6 trillion mark from the total damages of US$3 trillion in 2015. If you look at these
statistics, you will come to know the gravity of the cybersecurity threats.

The average cost of one single cybersecurity breach in 2018 is estimated to be about US$3.86 million, which is
about 6.4% higher of the same in the previous year. The cybersecurity cost is continuously rising.

The new forms and features of cyber threats are emerging in the marketplace. The hackers have become so
advanced that they create new and out-of-the-box ideas to attack the systems, networks, services, and data to steal
the valuable IT resources.
The average cost of deploying the automated security system is very high. The average cost of automated security
system implementation is about US$2.88 million. This huge amount is definitely out of the affordability of many
small and medium-sized companies all over the world. To cope up with those increasing security threats, it is very
crucial for the small and medium-sized companies to strictly follow the standard practices devised by the
regulatory authorities and industry standard organizations.

INTRODUCTION TO CYBERATTACKS:

A cyberattack is a deliberate and malicious electronic attempt by one party, which may be either an organization or
an individual to breach into the cyber environment of the other party – an individual or an organization – to steal,
delete, or damage the valuable information.

The main areas of attacks include the following:

• Data servers
• Application servers
• Storage servers
• Financial information
• Operational systems
• Computer networks

There are numerous types and methods used for attacking the cyber environments of the other people. A few very
important ones include the following:
• Malware attacks
• Phishing attacks
• Structured Language Query, SQL Injection
• Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks
• Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks

Objectives of cyber security:

main objectives of a hacker for conducting cyberattacks are listed below:
• Achieving monetary gains
• Damaging the brand value of the other party
• Inflicting damages through cyberterrorism
• Obtaining government and business secrets
• Warfare cyberattacks
• Growth hacking email campaign

All of the abovementioned objectives can be achieved when any one or all of the following systems and data
breaches are achieved by a hacker. Breaching “CIA” triad – confidentiality, integrity, and availability – makes a
successful cyberattack.

ConfidentialityBreach: The breach of confidentiality occurs when the personal information or data provided by a
client of an organization under certain data confidentiality agreements is either intention-ally or unintentionally
disclosed to the third party without getting consent from the client.

The main sources of confidentiality breach include the following:

• Theft of employee laptops
• Leaving computers with confidential information unattended
• Providing unauthorized access to the unconcerned person
• Unauthorized access by hacker through malware
 • Consulting company employees violating confidentiality agreements
• Unlawful use of information for personal or business gains

The examples of confidential data include the following:

• Intellectual property
• Personal identity information
• Credit card information
• Bank account information
• Personal health information
• Business or trade secrets
The examples of big confidential data breaches in recent years include the Marriot data breach (500 million) in
2018, Equifax data breach (143 million) in 2017, and Adult Friend Finder data breach (412 million) in 2016.
AvailabilityBreach: The availability breach occurs when the authorized user is unable to access online services or
personal information that he/she is authorized for. The denial or unavailability of the authorized digital resources is
known as the availability breach.
The main sources of breach of availability may include the following:
• Failure of hardware
• Malfunction of software
• Choking of data bandwidth
• Redundant arrangement failures
• DoS attacks
The examples of breach of availability of services and data include failure of Google Cloud in February 2018 and
failure of Equinix in March 2018.
IntegrityBreach: Any activity that damages the data consistency, validity, and accuracy is known as the data
integrity breach activity. The integrity breach may corrupt the data, and then, it may not be useful anymore.
The hackers achieve the data integrity breach through multiple ways as mentioned below:
• Introduction of malware on the server
• Undoable malicious encryption of data
• Manipulation of original data
• Introduction of viruses
• Malicious insiders
The examples of data integrity attacks include the introduction of Stuxnet worm to manipulate the Iranian Nuclear
Program Data in 2010 and World Anti-Doping Agency data manipulation in 2016.

Types of cyber attacks:

DENIAL OF SERVICE (DoS): Denial of Service or DoS is an Internet security-related event in which the hackers
attack a particular server running some Internet services to prevent it from working normal or to stop the services.
In this case, the servers are overwhelmed with the flooding of superfluous messages.
The hacker actively exploits the server vulnerability and sends the bombardment of automated requests and
messages to that particular server to respond. The server gets overwhelmed and choked and stops working normal. In
certain cases, the service stops working due to overloaded server. These kinds of malicious attacks prevent the
legitimate users from accessing the online services (hence, the services are disrupted or stopped for the legitimate
clients/users).
The major symptoms of being the victim of DoS attacks (for a legitimate user) include the following:
• Inability in accessing a website
• Delay in accessing online service
• Huge delays in file opening on the websites
• Increased volume of spam emails
• Degradation of performance of services
Main types of DoS attacks include the following:
• DNS (Domain Name System) server attack
• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) server attack
• ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) flooding
• Network attack or buffer overflow attack
• Large name files attack on the network or server
• Ping of death attack
• SYN flood attack on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) handshake protocol
• Shrew attack
DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE (DDoS): Like the DoS attack, in this type of cyberattack, the servers are
jammed or overwhelmed with the malicious traffic to prevent the legitimate users from accessing their accounts or
legitimate online services. However, the main difference between DoS and DDoS attacks is that the DoS attack is
targeted from a specific origination of traffic to attack the victim server, while in the DDoS attack case, multiple
sources of traffic are used to attack the victim server (at the same time). DDoS attack is more lethal than the DoS
attack. The prevention of DDoS attacks is very difficult as compared to the normal DoS attacks.
It is more difficult to prevent DDoS attack than the usual DoS attack. In this attack, many computers from different
parts become the part of this deadly attack without any approval and knowledge of the owner of the computer.
DDoS attacks are carried out in different ways; the main types of DDoS attacks are listed below:
• Connection-based application-layer attacks, i.e., HTTP, DNS, web servers, and others
• Connectionless volumetric attacks from multiple botnets
• State table exhaustion attacks
• And all other techniques used in the DoS attacks
MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE (MITM) ATTACKS: In the “Man-in-the-Middle” or MITM cyberattack, the hacker
intercepts the normal connection between the user and the web server without any knowledge of both user and
server. The legitimate communication link between the two entities is exploited, intercepted, and decrypted to
steal the personal information for malicious use.

MITM attack consists of three major steps. In the first step, the hacker scans the vulnerabilities of the system and
network. Once the vulnerabilities are known, the phishing emails are sent to users; those emails contain the wrong
addresses of your services or bank accounts. In the third step, they decrypt your information for stealing purpose.
Let us take an example to better understand the issue of MITM attack. Sometimes, you get an email that looks like it
was sent from your bank or your other financial institute. That is a phishing email, which asks you to click certain
link for the verification of your account, phone number, or any other information. Once you click that link, the link
takes you to the web server, which looks like your bank website but in reality, that is not your bank website. You
insert your credentials to login. Thus, you provide your bank information to the hacker.
Finally, the hacker obtains your password and uses that password to take some information or valuable item from
your account. This entire process is known as the MITM cyberattack. The major types of MITM attacks include the
following.
• DNS spoofing
• HTTP spoofing
• IP spoofing
 • Email hijacking
• SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) hijacking
• Wi-Fi network eavesdropping
• Stealing the cookies set on the browsers
CRYPTOJACKING: Cryptojacking is a relatively new form of cyberattack to be used for stealing the
“cryptocurrency”. This attack mines processor’s power through malicious software on the cryptocurrency miner
machines of the legitimate users.

In this method of hacking, a malware is installed on the servers of the cryptocurrency miners. That software uses
the power of the machines in the name of the malicious users. Thus, the reward earned through legitimate
verification of transactions goes to the account of the hacker.
SQL INJECTION: Structured Query Language (SQL) injection is a type of malicious practice to steal the valuable
data from the database server. The malicious user appends an SQL command in the back end of the SQL form field.
The objective of that command is to break the original SQL script and run the malicious script attached with the
SQL form.

The malicious code gets data from the SQL database server and sends to the computer of the hacker. Thus, the
valuable information is compromised through SQL injections.
SPAMMING: Spamming in the IT field is the name of sending junk mails and messages to the users in bulk without
getting consent from the users. It is a form of bombardment of products for marketing purposes. The hackers also
use spamming for spreading malware, viruses, phishing, Trojans, worms, and spyware.
In this spamming traffic, advertising, adult-related materials, and finance-related matters are the top three domains in
the spamming email messages.
According to the research, more than 14.5 billion emails were sent out on the Internet on a daily basis in the
starting months of the 2018. The senders of the spam emails all around the world collectively earn about US$7,000
per day. Thus, it is still an attractive business for many individuals and businesses.
CYBERTERRORISM: Cyberterrorism is a type of cybercrime to attack or threat to attack the computer systems,
mission-critical data, or computer networks either to damage the cyber resources or to steal the critical
information that can pose a great threat to the security of public lives, government systems, or even the defense
systems of a country. The objectives of cyberterrorism include the sabotage of political and social fabric through
coercion or intimidation tactics.
The main examples of cyberterrorism include the disruption of public utilities such as water supplies, electricity,
healthcare, and other such systems. The coercive activities include the honey trap and other blackmailing tactics
that can lead to the compromise on the governmental or security system information.
DIGITAL PROPERTY MISAPPROPRIATION: The digital property misappropriation is the illegal or fraudulent use
of the digital resources like software and digital content, including e-books, audios, videos, images, writings,
paintings, and the likes without the permission of the owner of that digital property.
The major steps powered by the modern technology to safeguard the digital proper-ties include data encryption,
digital access control, user controls, and others. Once the data has been transferred into the hands of malicious
users, they can misappropriate that digital asset in different ways.
ZERO-DAY EXPLOITATION: Zero-day exploitation commonly known as Zero-Day or 0-Day is a vulnerability in the
computer software system that is known exactly on the same day when the malicious attacks exploit that
vulnerability. In this attack, there is almost no time to patch up the vulnerability of the software because it was
known at the same time when the attack occurred and no time was available for the software engineers to tackle
this issue.
PHISHING: Phishing is a type of cyberattack in which the targeted person is bombarded with the emails that look
very similar to the emails coming from their banks, insurance companies, and other service providers. The hacker
targets the people through emails to get their sensitive and personal information related to their financial and
other account information disguising as the genuine and trustworthy individuals.
The main target of the phishing attack is to get the information about the credit card number, ATM pin codes,
passwords, user name, and the related information. Once the information has been collected, the hackers use that
information to steal the money or other valuable digital assets.
There are three major modes of phishing used in the modern phishing activities as listed below:
• Telephone calls commonly referred to as voice phishing, or vishing
• Emails referred to as general phishing
• Small text messages (SMS) referred to as smishing
DIGITAL VANDALISM: In a digital vandalism attack, the malware either removes the useful data from the
websites or manipulates the information in such a way that the meaning of the information is reversed. Thus a bad
impact on the reputation of the source is created.

The main reason behind this act was to malign the image of Donald Trump and his campaign in the elections.
Digital vandalism directly affects the reputation and brand name of the company, person, or an institute. It has
become very critical today because of fierce competition in the marketplace. Many hackers damage the brands of a
particular company or entity and indirectly provide the benefit to its competitor in the market.
CYBERSTALKING: Women are the most affected population of cyberstalking. Cyberstalking is a form of harassing
and threatening. It is also known as cyberbullying. Cyberstalking is a systematic approach of harassing done
through email, phones, SMS, chats, and other forms of communication. The main components used in the
communication to threaten the targeted entity include defaming, false allegations, slandering, and other forms of
blackmailing.
CYBER FRAUDS AND FORGERY: In this form of crime, the digitally stored documents are forged to form the
counterfeit documents. This crime is increased during the recent years due to the availability of high-tech devices
like computer software, printers, scanners, cameras, and other tools.

Types of Computer Malware

VIRUSES: A computer virus is a malicious computer program, which is designed to alter the computer functions,
slow down the computer performance, and damage the valuable files on the computer drive.
The virus programs have the capability to copy into multiple files and, thus, over-whelm the computer processes
and data storage.
The main sources of virus propagation include the following:
• Copying on hard drive
• Data copying through flash
• Email attachments
• Short text messages
• Scam websites
• Scam social media links
• Infected file downloading from Internet
• Visiting infected websites
The viruses are just programs in the form of executable files. They do not get activate without running those
executable files on your computers. If you got a virus program on your computer, but it has not been executed on
your computer, your computer is not infected as yet.
The objectives of spreading a virus may include the following:
• Amusement, fun, and prank
• Altering computer functioning
• Corrupting data files on computer
• Stealing credentials
• Sending spamming emails from your computer
• Erasing valuable data
• Damaging hard drives
• And others.
The main symptoms of a virus-infected computer may include the following:
• Frequent appearance of pop-ups and other annoyance
• Changes in the home screen and other settings
• Redirecting your online surfing to certain websites
• Large-scale incoming and outgoing emails
• Slowing down of the performance of your computer
• Running of unknown programs on your computer
• Changes in your passwords, especially the admin passwords
• System starts crashing frequently
• Restarting of your computer unexpectedly
• Any other unexpected error or behavior of the computer or the computing machine.
We can save our computers from the attack of nasty viruses by taking the following measures:
• Avoid using insecure websites.
• Do not open fake websites that allure you for some free incentives.
• Always keep your antivirus software updated.
• Always keep operating system (OS) of your computer updated.
• Turn on the security firewall settings.
• Always configure your browser for high level of security.
• Free and insecure plugins should not be installed on your browsers.
• Do not use your credit cards on the websites that do not comply with the Payment Card Industry Data
Security Standard (PCI DSS) guidelines for secure transactions.
• Never insert flash cards (i.e., pen drive) or other storage devices into your computer without scanning and
knowing about the type of data.
• Never open emails and their attachments from unknown people and email address.
TROJAN HORSE: It collects the information about the user behavior, credentials, and other activities on the
computer silently and sends those to its command and control center from where the other malicious attacks can
originate.
The concept of the Trojan horse in the modern computer terminology resembles 100% with the story of Trojan
horse in the Greek mythology. According to the old mythology, the Greek developed a wooden Trojan horse, which
would house many soldiers inside the wooden compartment of the Trojan horse. The people of the Troy city would
pull the Trojan to the city and the soldiers hidden inside the Trojan horse would come out in the night and open the
gates of the cities. They would call their fellow soldiers to come in and overrun the city to conquer.
The concept of Trojan horse in computer security is also same. A Trojan horse comes in through some social
engineering tactics such as emails, disguised links, and other sources. They would sit on the computers and start
spying, making changes in credentials and doing other such malicious activities.
The Trojan horses cannot replicate as the virus or computer worms can do. They are like spies working silently on
your computers to accomplish their malicious acts for which the Trojan horses are designed and propagated.
Generally recognized activities of a Trojan horse on an infected computer include the following:
• Collecting data and sending to command and control center
• Copying the files and credential information
• Blocking of the data
• Altering the useful data
• Reducing the performance of computer
• Deleting some useful data files
There are numerous types of Trojan horses used in the modern cybercriminal activities. A few very important ones
are mentioned below:
• Trojan Spy
• Trojan Mail Finder
• Trojan Proxy
• Trojan Clicker
• Trojan Ransom
• Trojan SMS
• Trojan Dropper
• Trojan Fake AV
• Trojan Game Theft
• Trojan Backdoor
• Trojan DDoS
How can we recognize that the computer has been infected by the Trojan horse attack? One can diagnose by the
symptoms of Trojan horse attack, which are listed below:
• Performance degrades significantly.
• Internet speed slows down.
 • Problem in Internet browsing occurs.
• Many Internet browser pop-ups may appear.
• Your computer security application can warn you through security pop-ups.
• Computer starts working itself without your instructions.
• Some crucial applications will stop working and unwanted applications will load without any control on
them.
• A large number of spam emails appear in your inbox.
• Your contacts may receive emails that you did not send to them.
• Loading of computer takes much longer.
• Your data files are deleted or modified.
ROOTKIT: Rootkit is a type of malware that gets the administrator-level privileges on the OS of the computer
without showing its presence on the computer. The main feature of rootkit is that it hides from being detected
easily, but maintains the control over the OS to perform its designated tasks on the system. The normal behavior of
the OS is subverted by the rootkit malware on the system.
The rootkit malware subverts the request sent to the OS from reaching to the desired API and responds with fake
responses. Moreover, you request the OS to start the antivirus or anti-malware application to scan your computer;
the request is interrupted from reaching to the OS. The rootkit interrupts the request and sends you a fake
response that the program you requested for is not working at this time.
There are three main goals of a rootkit on a computer as mentioned below:
• Running freely without any restrictions of having been caught and deleted
• Hiding from the system applications and the user of the computer
• Stealing personal information, passwords, and installing other malicious programs on the computer so
that the compromised computer can be used for attacking the other computers on the network
There are numerous types of rootkits based on the objective and point of attack on the systems. A few very
well-known and important rootkits are listed below:
• Memory rootkits
• Kernel rootkits
• Bootkit rootkits
• Firmware rootkits
• Library rootkits
• Application rootkits
SPYWARE: Spyware is a software code or program, which is installed on the computers without letting the user
know about it. The main objective of this program is to monitor online activities, computer using habits, and
personal interests.
The symptoms of a spyware attack on your computer may include the following:
• System performance slows down
• Any program stops working properly
• Many changes in browser tools bar and plugins appear
• Advertisements appear on your screen incessantly
• Internet bandwidth chokes
• Search engine and other preferences change
A few important measures to reduce the impact of spyware are listed below:
• Always close the advertisement pop-up windows by clicking on “X” red button or ALT+F4 shortcut key.
• Do not click the OK, NO, YES, or any other link on the pop-up window.
• Be very careful while visiting new websites or redirected websites.
• Do not download free software tools unless you are sure or confident about the source.
• Do not be lured by the tempting offers.
• Do not open emails and their attachments form unknown senders.
• Do not rely on free help for removing anti-spyware links; they are normally spyware themselves in many
cases.
• Keep your OS up to date.
 • Install a genuine spyware software from renowned companies.
• Keep your anti-spyware up to date.
• Activate firewall settings.
• Increase the security level of your browser to high.
WORMS: The main feature of a computer worms and viruses is that they replicate themselves in order to spread
to other computers on the network or through other data transmission media.
Computer worms are the types of malware software programs that replicate on the computers to consume the
major portions of the computer resources such as bandwidth, hard disk, and memory.
The basic objective of a worm is to spread over the computers in a network by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the
computer OS and other vulnerabilities in the computer networks. They are considered to be harmless without
payloads. The worms with-out any payloads or payload-free worms just consume the resource of the computer and
do no other harms. But when additional payloads are added to the worms, they can become dangerous in installing
other malicious programs hidden in the payloads.
The history of creating computer worms is very interesting. The first worm code named as “tapeworm” to replicate
on 100 different nodes for a communication was created at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center by John Shoch.
The purpose of that code was to analyze traffic patterns of a communication network based on Ethernet. This
worm was created to save the time of code creation on every single machine individually. So, that worm code
replicated on all machines on the network. It was not a maliciously intended code.
The first maliciously intended worm code surfaced in 1988 when Morris worm shocked the entire world of
Internet. Morris worm was created by Robert Morris Jr. He was a student at Cornell University at that time, but he
released the worm from MIT. That landed him in a legal pursuit and subsequently US$10,050 fine and 3 years of
suspended imprisonment. That worm brought more than 6,000 servers down at that time. The total estimated
number of servers on the Internet was about 60,000 at that time.
A few very important worms are listed below:
• Blaster worm
• MyDoom worm
• Code Red worm
• ILOVEYOU worm
• CIH worm

The main points of a worm can be summarized as follows:

• It replicates and spreads.
• It exploits communication protocol vulnerabilities on networks.
• It exploits OSs on the computers.
• They are harmless in nature without any payloads.
• Payloads on the worms can be harmful like virus or other malicious attacks.
• They infect the computers without any interaction from the user.
• Bandwidth, storage space, and memory can be consumed with uncontrolled replication.
• Worms with payloads can wreak havoc on your computer security.
• They pave the way for other lethal cyberattacks such as spamming zombie, distributed denial of service
(DDoS), and data theft.

“How can we recognize that computer is infected by some worms?” Indeed, a worm-infected computer can be
recognized by certain symptoms. Those symptoms are listed below:
• Some errors related to the OS and system files appear.
• The modified files disappear or do not open.
• Firewall warnings may pop-up in certain cases.
• Strange icons or files appear on the desktop.
• Computer generates unknown errors in sounds, messages, or even in images.
 • The performance of computer slows down.
• Sometimes computer may hang or freeze.
• In extreme conditions, system may crash frequently.
• In extreme cases, you will find emails sent to your contacts without your knowledge.
The worms can be prevented by taking the following measures and guidelines:
• Always keep OS updated with software patches.
• Always take care in opening emails and its attachments from unknown source.
• Activate the security firewall.
• Use anti-spyware and antivirus software from reliable companies or parties.
• Always keep antivirus software updated.
• Use packet filters on the network.
• Implement ACL and null route configuration on switches and routers.
ADWARE: As the name “Adware” implies, it is a computer program that forces the Internet users to visit a
particular web page, pop-up window, or an on-page advertisement to watch.
A few very important symptoms of your computer to have been affected by the adware include the following:
• Frequent redirects
• Huge number of spam emails
• Frequent pop-up windows of offers
• Bombardment of product ads in browser
• Heavy outgoing and incoming traffic
• Slowing down of Internet connection
You can avoid adware or reduce them by taking the following measures:
• Activate pop-up blocker on your browser.
• Use your common sense what to click and what not.
• Activate the firewall.
• Install an anti-adware software.
• Update the anti-adware software regularly.
• Try to avoid free downloads, which may contain adware codes.
• Ask a question to those who know to learn about anything you are not sure about.
SCAREWARE: Scareware is a type of malware, which pops up in window with a serious warning about any
virus threat on your computer. But in reality, there is no threat or virus on your computer except that hoax, which
appeared on your screen!
The alert looks very genuine from certain reputable websites, but they are not genuine websites, i.e., they just look
like genuine. This message normally prompts the users to download or call some numbers to get help. The main
objective behind the Scareware is to sell fake and bogus products. In certain cases, the hackers trick the users to
input the credit card, personal, and bank information on their website.
:

The main objectives of spreading scare may include the following:

• Selling fake products
• Stealing personal and bank information
• Installing viruses and other malicious codes for cybercrimes
• Blackmailing for some ransom
• Prank for fun
You can avoid the impact of scareware by taking the following steps:
• Do not panic at all.
• Check if your antivirus is working well.
• Run a virus scan via your own antivirus.
• Check if your antivirus is up to date.
• Search about the legitimacy of that website, which alerts you of virus on your computer.
• Search for the legitimacy of the message you see on your computer; some-times simple Internet search
reveals the reality.
• Never rely on free software in such conditions.
• Purchase a genuine antivirus and install if you have none installed on your computer.
• Keep the antivirus up to date.
BROWSER HIJACKER: You might have been in the situation when the default settings of your browser were
changed. For example, your default search engine was changed to a new one without getting permission from you.
When you observe this situation, be sure that your computer’s browser has been hijacked by the malicious program,
which is altering the settings of your browser and creating a way for the malicious programs to intrude in.
In some cases, you might have seen that some unknown plugins have been installed and activated on your browser.
Although you have not downloaded or installed on your browser, still they are there and active. This is another
strong symptom of your browser to have been compromised through the browser hijacking software.
The main reason behind these kinds of activities is a certain malicious code known as browser hijacker malware.
This code is used to pave the way for different kinds of cyberattacks on your computer or to the other computers
on your network.
The browser hijacker malware can also be used for stealing personal information, user accounts, and other
information for financial benefits. The symptoms and impact of browser hijacker malware may include the
following:
• Slow browsing speed
• Multiple tool bars on the browser
• Redirecting your search queries to websites that you have not set as default
• A large number of pop-up windows and ads appear on your browser
You can save your browser from being hijacked by the browser hijacker malware by taking the following measures:
• Avoid free downloads as much as possible.
• Disable unwanted tool bars.
• Remove or disable unwanted plugins.
• Set your default search engine.
• Install anti-malware erasers; however, be careful whether that is authentic.
• Use common sense while downloading and Internet browsing.
• Avoid browsing random websites that contain contents that may not be ethi-cally correct.