Malware is the most commonly used term and the collective term for computer malware today. The term is derived from the English word “malicious” and the Latin stem “malus” (bad), which is coupled with the software term. In earlier years the term “ computer virus ” was used exclusively and with little definition. Today, in the age of the Internet, computer worms are considered a bigger threat. The malicious programs as well as malware such as Trojans & Co. have undesirable consequences for the user - they lead to invasion of privacy, loss or theft of data, economic and financial damage or to the dysfunctionality of hardware or software programs.
Around 350,000 new forms of computer malware
are said to appear on the Internet every day. It is estimated that around
250 million Trojans, viruses and worms & Co. are in global circulation. According
to a survey by Bitkom, 71 per cent of Germans
fear problems caused by viruses, Trojans or other harmful software. In
2014, according to the Kaspersky Security Bulletin, almost 40 per cent of all
computers worldwide were attacked at least once from the World Wide Web. The
threat posed by malware is more present than ever. Every PC user should
hold meetings to protect themselves against malware and to identify and remove
Trojans and viruses.
The Attackers Are Getting More
and More Cunning - These Are the Most Important Attack Tactics:
- Botnets - Networks of Computers. They can spy on passwords and data and use spam or phishing emails to spy out passwords. Even smartphones or other devices in the Internet of Things can become targets of botnets. There is quick help, for example, on the website of www.botfrei.de
- Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks: With this, servers or websites are used to capacity in terms of data and capacity to such an extent that they can no longer be reached and collapse. DDoS attacks can be flanked by attacks with malware or spying programs. More about protection against DDoS.
- Virus Kits (Exploit Kits): Virtually the automation of cyberattacks. The programs come to the computer via drive-by downloads, the unintentional download of malware. Up-to-date anti-virus software or complete security suites help a lot in protecting against malware, Trojans and viruses and in recognizing and containing dangers. There is a constant battle between malware programmers and hackers on the one hand and anti-virus software manufacturers on the other. The developers of malicious codes try day and night to outsmart the software's monitoring functions and to be one step ahead of the antivirus programs.
The Six Virus and Trojan Highlights - a Look at The Malware
Archive
Computer malware is wreaking havoc on users, businesses, and even
entire economies around the world. A look at the "malware
archive" for the last 30 years:
- Regin, 2014. The “state trojan” spied not only on individuals but also on entire authorities, ICT companies and research organizations in Russia and Saudi Arabia and also in Germany. It has been suggested that Regin was a tool of the NSA.
- Stuxnet, 2010. The sophisticated worm paralyzed industrial plants in Iran. A system from Siemens was attacked, which was used to control industrial plants such as waterworks, air conditioning and pipelines, and which led to disruptions in the Iranian nuclear program.
- Conficker, 2008. The computer worm was sometimes referred to as "Kido" or "Downadup". It infected around 50 million computers, networks and mobile data carriers such as USB sticks around the world and exploited a bug in Windows servers.
- Mydoom, 2004. The most violent of all computer worms to date with the highest rate of spread. It infected e-mails as a malware attachment and caused damage to around 40 billion US dollars. Backdoors enabled access via the Internet. Mydoom also attacked Microsoft websites and anti-virus software, manufacturers.
- I LOVE YOU, 2000. Who was not flattered when they found this subject in their mailbox? The love letter was de facto a Visual Basic script that distributed this worm en masse via e-mail and infected around 45 million e-mail users worldwide. The damage is estimated at 5.5 billion US dollars.
- Brain, 1986. It is also known as the “Pakistanivirus” and is the “mother of all” PC computer viruses. Brain infected the boot sector of floppy disks formatted with the DOS FAT file system. It spread all over the world. The inventors wanted to understand the expansion of pirated copies.
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