Antivirus An antivirus is a program used to protect a computer from malware such as virus, Trojan horses, computer worms and other malicious programs. Besides from protecting a computer, the anti-virus offers many solutions to prevent new infections into your computer by scanning emails and files when they are being downloaded. An antivirus program is considered a security strategy. A computer virus is similar to a biological virus; it spreads from one computer to another just as the biological virus spreads from human to human. The computer virus infection is small software that can harm your computer; it disrupts computer function, and corrupts and wipes out data. The spread of a virus can occur in numerous ways. Ways that a virus can spread is through the opening of attachments to emails or other kind of messages, through downloading files from the internet, through visiting unknown websites and through installing un-trusted program files. One unique characteristic about a computer virus that differentiates from other malware is that a computer virus can only spread through human action. The computer virus can be on your computer without you knowing and the computer virus is only effective when you click on the infected program. A Trojan horse is a program that may see and legit software or files but once the program is executed, the damage comes into effect. The damage goes from being small, spamming programs into your computer and can go up to stealing computer data or even destroying and eliminating all information from computer. Through Trojans, computer hackers are able to hack into some one’s unit and remote control the computer. It all takes a simple click, from either you or the hacker to infect the computer. One dif... ... middle of paper ... ...cious programs then it is best to remove unless you are completely sure it will not harm your computer. A way to check id a virus is really a virus, you can upload it to VirusTotal and that program will tell one every detail of the program and define if the program is a virus. It’s really hard to choose the best antivirus solution for your computer. Of course we want the best security to protect our computer from malicious programs, but there are lots of programs to choose from. The criterion to find the best antivirus solution for you is reliability, usability, comprehensive protection and quality of protection. Personally I use Norton Antivirus because it contains multi-layered malware-fighting technology which many other antiviruses don’t have. Multi-layer means that it has protection layers that a virus needs to pass in order to reach and infect the computer.
date with the latest software and security patches. Reputable antivirus programs such as Norton Security, McAfee Antivirus, and Bitdefender Antivirus and firewall programs should be installed and kept up to date for maximum protection.
Beal, V. (2011, March 29). The difference between a computer virus, worm, and Trojan horse.
Trojans are a type of program that can and usually will hurt a PC through software and hardware. The way it gets into the computer is by fooling the computer user into thinking that some software he/she found online is safe. When the person downloads the software, it is not actually useful software. It is actually a Trojan which has now invaded the PC. Once in, it allows the creator of the Trojan to access and control the computer from his own house. The hacker can then access passwords, important documents, and other stuff that will be mentioned later. The malware does not make ...
The malicious software can lock the data in a way that is not difficult for an expert to reverse (Ali 89). Nevertheless, there is a more advanced method that involves the use of cryptoviral extortion to encrypt data and demand a ransom to decrypt the data. In such case, it is difficult for experts to recover files without a decryption key (Ali 89). Ransomware attacks are normally executed using a Trojan or a file that is disguised as an email attachment that seems legitimate to the user. In the last five years, ransomware attackers were able to target multiple computers through the use of a botnet (Ali 88). A botnet enables cyber criminals to attack an entire system by compromising the network. The ability to kidnap multiple systems makes ransomware a significant cyber security threat. The cybercriminals demand ransom in the form digital currencies such as bitcoins and ukash because they are difficult to
I decided to read the book by David Harley called Viruses Revealed. This book goes into great detail about the different kinds of viruses and virus mechanisms, the solutions to these viruses, studies on different cases of viruses and then the social aspects of viruses. In the first part of the book, Harley talks about the problems with viruses. A virus is a program that infects other programs to modify them. “Infecting means that a virus will insert itself into the chain of command” (Harley). The virus structure was defined into three different parts: Infection, Payload, and Trigger. The infection is defined as the way or ways in which the virus spreads. The payload is defined as what the virus does besides duplicating itself. Trigger is defined as the procedure that decides whether or not the payload is necessary. Harley also talks about the difference between damage versus infection. The major difference between the two is that many users have infected documents or applications on their computer. Whether or not those applications are run is the difference between the two. In part one Harley also converses about Trojan Horses. Trojan horses are normally known as a virus, but he shoots that down. Harley says that Trojan Horses are normally not viruses, but just a worm that goes from computer to computer. After talking about different kinds of viruses and worms, he goes into Anti-Virus softwares. There are two different kinds of anti-viruses. One being virus-specific. Virus-specific means that every time a virus is found on your computer, it is identified but not detected. Generic scanners do the opposite. Generic scanners detect viruses but do not identify them.
Computers are main technological features that allow criminals to step into unsuspecting victims lives. With a simple piggy-backing program hackers are able to track every keystroke made by the victim. One such program is called spyware, not to be confused with adware, which is often referred to interchangeably with spyware, but is potentially harmless (Louis 15). Spyware, hidden within downloaded software, implants itself deep within a computer’s hard drive, allowing it to track every move made by the user (Louis 16).
Viruses are important to discuss because they are analyzed in almost all microbiology classes. Viruses can be characterized as, “any of a group of submicroscopic entities consisting of a single nucleic acid chain surrounded by a protein coat and capable of replication only within the cells of living organisms” (Biology). Bacteriophage are more specific in a sense that they are “a virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium” not just any living organisms cells (Biology). These viruses can replicate in 2 different cycles: lytic cycle or the lysogenic cycle. If a virus takes enters the lytic cycle it will cause infection and destruction of the host cell. This is done when the virus first penetrates the cell membrane of the host cell.
Why is the human body full of viruses and other bacteria? Most foods we eat even the air we breath is full of nasty bacteria floating around in them. Even Medicines are full of viruses that are reconstructed to be antibodies, helping the body fight off illnesses. So, what happens when the body has to deal with the same viruses over a long period of time? Well, It is believed that a superbug is formed. A superbug is a mutated stronger version of the main virus that has a immunity to the medicine made to kill it. The human body makes antibodies on its own at a sluggish rate. Therefore, medicines with antibodies are made to speed up the process of producing antibodies.
“ Prevention is better than cure ”, if computer users are aware of Malware attacks, they may prevent those attacks . So, in this research paper i am going to focus on Malware and Protecting Against Malware.
Anti- virus is signature-based technology. Anti-virus compares the structure of le to the signatures stored in its database. If the le contain same signature, means it is infected by worm. The anti-virus database must be updated regularly to discover new worms.
...he Trojan horse, users should be familiar with all the programs that should normally run on their systems. Once there is an addition or alteration, it is easy to notice and investigate. Another technique that is often used by attackers involves using wrapping programs, that are combining both malicious and original code. Once run on the victim’s computer the program first installs malicious code, and then executes the original code.
Malicious software, or simply malware, can be described as software that a computer user never authorized to be loaded. This means that the software can be found on user’s computer without his or her knowledge. Furthermore, a malware can be described as software that collects private information from any computer without user’s knowledge and authorization. As the name suggests, this software is malicious and can do great damage to a computer, mobile device, or other related devices. This damage can range from something as slight as altering the author’s name on a document to massive damage like making an entire device fail to function properly (Töyssy and Marko 109). The good news is that malwares can be controlled or prevented. As a matter of fact, it does not cost a fortune to keep a device safe from malware attacks. It also needs enough knowledge about them. In order to be able to do this, however, it is important to understand the various terminologies used to describe malicious software.
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.
A cyber crime called 'Bot Networks', wherein spamsters and other perpetrators of cyber crimes remotely take control of computers without the users realizing it, is increasing at an alarming rate. Computers get linked to Bot Networks when users unknowingly download malicious codes such as Trojan horse sent as e-mail attachments. Such affected computers, known as zombies, can work together whenever the malicious code within them get activated, and those who are behind the Bot Networks attacks get the computing powers of thousands of systems at their disposal.
In today’s days malware is designated as a software which aims to disturb a computer with the consent or permission of the owner. This term “Malware” is used by computer professionals to describe a varied forms of destructive, annoying and intrusive software code. This word “Malware” is used to indicate all types of malware which include a true set of viruses.