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Malware and Its Types

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15 views3 pages

Malware and Its Types

Uploaded by

Aman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Malware and its types

Malware stands for “Malicious Software” and it is designed to gain access or installed into the computer
without the consent of the user. They perform unwanted tasks in the host computer for the benefit of a third
party. There is a full range of malwares which can seriously degrade the performance of the host machine.
There is a full range of malwares which are simply written to distract/annoy the user, to the complex ones
which captures the sensitive data from the host machine and send it to remote servers. There are various
types of malwares present in the Internet. Some of the popular ones are:

Adware
It is a special type of malware which is used for forced advertising. They either redirect the page to some
advertising page or pop-up an additional page which promotes some product or event. These adware are
financially supported by the organizations whose products are advertised.

Spyware
It is a special type of which is installed in the target computer with or without the user permission and is
designed to steal sensitive information from the target machine. Mostly it gathers the browsing habits of the
user and the send it to the remote server without the knowledge of the owner of the computer. Most of the
time they are downloaded in to the host computer while downloading freeware i.e. free application
programs from the internet. Spywares may be of various types; It can keeps track of the cookies of the host
computer, it can act as a keyloggers to sniff the banking passwords and sensitive information, etc.

Browser hijacking software

There is some malicious software which are downloaded along with the free software offered over the
internet and installed in the host computer without the knowledge of the user. This software modifies the
browsers setting and redirect links to other unintentional sites.

Virus
A virus is a malicious code written to damage/harm the host computer by deleting or appending a file,
occupy memory space of the computer by replicating the copy of the code, slow down the performance of
the computer, format the host machine, etc. It can be spread via email attachment, pen drives, digital
images, e-greeting, audio or video clips, etc. A virus may be present in a computer but it cannot activate
itself without the human intervention. Until and unless the executable file(.exe) is execute, a virus cannot be
activated in the host machine.
Worms
They are a class of virus which can replicate themselves. They are different from the virus by the fact that
they does not require human intervention to travel over the network and spread from the infected machine
to the whole network. Worms can spread either through network, using the loopholes of the Operating
System or via email. The replication and spreading of the worm over the network consumes the network
resources like space and bandwidth and force the network to choke.

Trojan Horse
Trojan horse is a malicious code that is installed in the host machine by pretending to be useful software.
The user clicks on the link or download the file which pretends to be a useful file or software from legitimate
source. It not only damages the host computer by manipulating the data but also it creates a backdoor in
the host computer so that it could be controlled by a remote computer. It can become a part of
botnet(robot-network), a network of computers which are infected by malicious code and controlled by
central controller. The computers of this network which are infected by malicious code are known as
zombies. Trojens neither infect the other computers in the network nor do they replicate.

A typical botnet
Scareware
Internet has changed how we talk, shop, play etc. It has even changed the way how the criminal target the
people for ransom. While surfing the Internet, suddenly a pop-up alert appears in the screen which warns
the presence of dangerous virus, spywares, etc. in the

user’s computer. As a remedial measure, the message suggests the used download the full paid version of
the software. As the user proceeds to download, a malicious code, known as scareware is downloaded into
the host computer. It holds the host computer hostage until the ransom is paid. The malicious code can
neither be uninstalled nor can the computer be used till the ransom is paid. A sample message alert of a
scareware is shown below in Fig 3[1]

Sample Warning Message of a Scareware1

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