Living in a digital age we are all faced with the threat of exposing our private information every time we log on to the internet, because of this it is extremely important that people know how to protect theirselves from digital threats. In order for people, to protect themselves, they must be aware of the basic types of malicious software, how they are spread and how to combat them. The generic virus is software which has been designed to do harm to a computer, replicate itself, and spread to other computers. While viruses can be spread via CDs and USB drives, the most common way for them to be distributed is through email attachments.(Brown 20-21) Email viruses have been known to search an infected persons email account, and send a copy of itself to everyone on the persons contact list. Using clever disguises such as love messages, or other seemingly innocent types of mail, the virus tricks users into downloading itself onto their computer, enabling the virus to wreak havoc and continue to multiply and infect more computers.(Greenberg 2) An example of one of the most damaging viruses to date would be the “I Love You” virus. This virus manipulated Microsoft’s Outlook Express email program to send itself to the infected computers email contact list, disguised as an innocent message with an attachment declaring the senders love. After a user downloaded the attachment their computer would become infected, and the virus would again replicate. So what exactly did the virus do? “I Love You” would simply delete digital photographs and hide MP3 audio files. While this may not sound like an incredibly threatening virus, it was taken very seriously. A spokesperson of the State Department announced that after finding several computer s... ... middle of paper ... ...1B." Ecommerce Times. 05/05/2000: 01-03. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. Littman, Jonathan. The Fugitive Game onine with Kevin Mitnick the inside story of the great cyberchase. 1st. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and company, 1996. 24-38. Print. Noyes, Katherine. "Fighting the Good Global Cybercrime Fight: Q&A With Security Guru Mikko Hypponen, Part 2." TechNewsWorld. 24/-8/2011: n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. . "Rogue Security Software I Fake Anti-Virus Alerts I Scareware." N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct 2011. Trojan Virus. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2011. . "The 'Worm' That Could Bring Down The Internet." NPR, 07/09/2011. Web. 26 Oct 2011. .
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Multi-platform computer worms are a tool that computer hackers use to infect computers to gain control access. Computer worms are a dangerous virus because they are self-replicating, meaning that they multiply themselves and spread onto other computer networks seeking a lapse in internet security. Computer worms do not need to attach themselves onto an existing computer program to gain access to the victim computer files. The computer worm was created on accident by a Cornell student named Robert Morris; he was seeking a way of managing the internet in 1988. “Morris had no malicious intent, but a bug in his program caused many of the computers the worm landed on to crash. … but worms had come of age and have since evolved into an effective way of attacking systems connected to the internet” (Barwise). Today, hackers use the Morris worm to infect computers. “Five men believed to be responsible for spreading a notorious computer worm on Facebook and other social networks — and pocketing several million dollars from online schemes — are hiding in plain sight in St. Petersburg, Russia …” (Richmond). Since the good intended creation of the worm it has only been used maliciously as a computer virus by money seeking computer hackers such as the Koobface gang in Russia.
...ies on other programs for it to continue to spread and often times the same program can be hit by the same virus several times. Cracking these codes and viruses is much harder to figure out. It’s almost like these virus writers make it a puzzle to solve before you can actually disband the virus itself. Even when the code is cracked and disassembled, writers normally just rewrite that code to do the exact same thing again.
Having first appeared in Russia in 2005, referred as Winlock, that successfully scammed over £10m from unsuspecting victims before the Russian authorities arrested 10 individuals for involvement in such hackings in 2010, however it hasn’t stop the growing number of the problem. With such profitable money to obtain, perpetrators have discovered new ways to spread the malware and to cash-in at the expense of victims.
Every year, cybercrime costs businesses $400 billion and by 2019, cybercrime will have cost the global economy 2.1 trillion dollars (Morgan 1). But, economic loss isn’t the only problem caused by weak cybersecurity; weak cybersecurity measures could allow hackers to collect data on citizens, cause widespread death, and destroy entire nations. Despite the massive threat the problem poses, no one has yet to institute an effective solution. Although government regulation and website blocking attempt to eliminate cybercrime and cyberwarfare, an ideal solution exists in government guidance and collaboration with the private sector.
In this globalized arena, with the proliferating computer users as well as computer networks, risks associated like Malware attacks are also multiplying. As the proverb
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Virus is one of the most common malware. Unlike spyware, virus is largely designed to harm useful programs or wreck down an entire operating system. There are many ways through which virus may enter a computer. The most common way is via email attachments. A...
What is the “MALWARE”? A malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "bad ware" .Malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
Malware can survive in a number of ways say different sizes, shapes and also the purpose ranging from viruses to spyware and to bots. Malware in general is classified into two types. They are the concealing malware and infectious malware. In case of infectious malware, the malware code is said to spread all over which means that the software code shall replicate from one user to another and this goes on. In infectious malware, we need to consider two cases, which are called the viruses and the worms. Viruses are termed as the software that has executables within itself and causes the executables to spread when it is run. The second case called worms is a software which infects a computer and then spreads to others.
Millions of people around the world use computers and the internet every day. We all use it in school, work even at home, computers have made us life easier, it has brought so many benefits to the society but it has also brought some problems and cybercrimes is one of them. “The times have really changed,” said Greg Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary for cyber security and communications. “We’re seeing now phishing, farming, botnets … war dialing and domain server spoofing. And we’re seeing coordinated cyber-attacks against nation states.” (Fowler 5) Cybercrime is one of the most prevalent and most popular rising crimes being committed today. This is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. There are millions victims around the world everyday who face these problems. Most people become victims of these at one time or another, but there are ways to avoid or deal with cybercrime by protecting yourself appropriately. I also was one of those victims who faced a similar problem. This unfortunate truth forces me to understand that computers and the Internet have made our lives easier in many ways. However, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others through identity theft, hacking attempts, and malicious use of software.
There are different groups, from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed. The advantages of technology and the internet have led more criminals to use cyberspace to commit crimes. The threat of cybercrime is increasing as globalization continues to spread across the world.