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For maximum protection, make sure your PC is protected with security software that can protect you against malware. Specific question — can SuperAntiSprware guard against and remove the Ask. Virus — this is a term that used to be generic. Worms generally are little programs that run in the background of your system. Trojan — software that you thought was going to be one thing, but turns out to be something bad.
Drive-by download — this is probably the most popular way to get something nasty into your computer. Most of the time, it comes from visiting a bad web page. That web page exploits a weakness in your browser and causes your system to become infected. Malware Actions Once malware is in your computer, it can do many things. Adware — not truly malware and almost never delivered using one of the methods above.
Adware is software that uses some form of advertising delivery system. Sometimes the way that advertisements are delivered can be deceptive in that they track or reveal more information about you than you would like. Most of the time, you agree to the adware tracking you when you install the software that it comes with. Generally, it can be removed by uninstalling the software it was attached to. Spyware — software that monitors your computer and reveals collected information to an interested party. This can be benign when it tracks what webpages you visit; or it can be incredibly invasive when it monitors everything you do with your mouse and keyboard.
Ransomware — lately a very popular way for Internet criminals to make money. This makes users vulnerable to malware in the form of e-mail attachments , which may or may not be disguised.
As malware attacks become more frequent, attention has begun to shift from viruses and spyware protection, to malware protection, and programs that have been specifically developed to combat malware. Other preventive and recovery measures, such as backup and recovery methods, are mentioned in the computer virus article. A specific component of anti-virus and anti-malware software, commonly referred to as an on-access or real-time scanner, hooks deep into the operating system's core or kernel and functions in a manner similar to how certain malware itself would attempt to operate, though with the user's informed permission for protecting the system.
Any time the operating system accesses a file, the on-access scanner checks if the file is a 'legitimate' file or not. The goal is to stop any operations the malware may attempt on the system before they occur, including activities which might exploit bugs or trigger unexpected operating system behavior.
Real-time protection from malware works identically to real-time antivirus protection: In some cases, it may also intercept attempts to install start-up items or to modify browser settings. Because many malware components are installed as a result of browser exploits or user error, using security software some of which are anti-malware, though many are not to "sandbox" browsers essentially isolate the browser from the computer and hence any malware induced change can also be effective in helping to restrict any damage done.
Many such viruses can be removed by rebooting the computer, entering Windows safe mode with networking [54] , and then using system tools or Microsoft Safety Scanner. Hardware implants can be of any type, so there can be no general way to detect them. As malware also harms the compromised websites by breaking reputation, blacklisting in search engines, etc. As a last resort, computers can be protected from malware, and infected computers can be prevented from disseminating trusted information, by imposing an "air gap" i.
However, malware can still cross the air gap in some situations. For example, removable media can carry malware across the gap. In December researchers in Germany showed one way that an apparent air gap can be defeated. Grayware is a term applied to unwanted applications or files that are not classified as malware, but can worsen the performance of computers and may cause security risks.
It describes applications that behave in an annoying or undesirable manner, and yet are less serious or troublesome than malware. Grayware encompasses spyware , adware , fraudulent dialers , joke programs, remote access tools and other unwanted programs that may harm the performance of computers or cause inconvenience. The term came into use around Another term, potentially unwanted program PUP or potentially unwanted application PUA , [67] refers to applications that would be considered unwanted despite often having been downloaded by the user, possibly after failing to read a download agreement.
PUPs include spyware, adware, and fraudulent dialers. Many security products classify unauthorised key generators as grayware, although they frequently carry true malware in addition to their ostensible purpose.
Software maker Malwarebytes lists several criteria for classifying a program as a PUP. Before Internet access became widespread, viruses spread on personal computers by infecting the executable boot sectors of floppy disks. By inserting a copy of itself into the machine code instructions in these executables , a virus causes itself to be run whenever a program is run or the disk is booted. Executable -infecting viruses are dependent on users exchanging software or boot-able floppies and thumb drives so they spread rapidly in computer hobbyist circles.
The first worms, network -borne infectious programs, originated not on personal computers, but on multitasking Unix systems.
Unlike a virus, this worm did not insert itself into other programs. Instead, it exploited security holes vulnerabilities in network server programs and started itself running as a separate process. With the rise of the Microsoft Windows platform in the s, and the flexible macros of its applications, it became possible to write infectious code in the macro language of Microsoft Word and similar programs.
These macro viruses infect documents and templates rather than applications executables , but rely on the fact that macros in a Word document are a form of executable code. The notion of a self-reproducing computer program can be traced back to initial theories about the operation of complex automata. This constituted a plausibility result in computability theory. Fred Cohen experimented with computer viruses and confirmed Neumann's postulate and investigated other properties of malware such as detectability and self-obfuscation using rudimentary encryption.
His doctoral dissertation was on the subject of computer viruses.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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