Definitions of Malware, Spyware, Viruses and More - Beginners Guide to Malware, Viruses and Spyware.
Making Money from Malware: Spyware, botnets, keystroke loggers and dialers.
In our two previous articles we touched upon two separate, yet equally important topics in malicious computer software.
Malware, which can be considered any type of software that intends to do harm to your computer or network. Whether that harm is actual distruction or data, disrupting the ability of a network to function or just to be an annoyance.
Trojan Horses, which are the Typhoid Maries of the software world, carrying deadly programs around inside while on the outside pretending to be anything but the disease carriers that they really are.
Up until now we have not really touched on the ‘why’ of malware. Why do people spend endless amounts of time coming up with pieces of software that does nothing less than annoy, harrass and in general disrupt peoples enjoyment of the Internet and/or ruins man years worth of work and data.
Today we will be talking about the ‘profit motive’ factor and the real cash cows of the malware software community - spyware, botnets and keyboard loggers.
Spyware - Computer software that is installed on your computer without your knowledge for the specific purpose of tracking and reporting your online activity to a third party, usually for marketing research, stealing online information such as credit card, logon user names and passwords and other financial information.
Browser Hijackers - Variation of spyware that is installed without your knowledge on your computer in order to direct your internet browser to specific websites. The owners of those websites have typically paid the developer of the browser highjacker in order to guarantee web traffic to their site for a specific purpose, either to install other spyware, show un-ending streams of pop up windows or simply to direct you away from a competitors website without your knowledge.
Keyloggers - Although not as common as Spyware and Browser Highjackers, Keyloggers can be a lot more dangerous. In the simplest sense, keyloggers are simple programs that are installed on you computer to detect and record every single key press on your keyboard. They then send these recorded keystrokes to a third party. The keystrokeloggers can and do record user ids and passwords to shopping/banking/financial websites. Any information that is entered by using the keyboard can be stolen.
Whether they are hijacking your internet browser to take you to a website that you did not want to visit, stealing your personal financial and identification information, or reporting all your online activities, all of the programs listed above are used for one purpose. To make money for the people that developed or are spreading them around the Internet and installing them on your computer through websites, spam email and trojan horse programs.
The only way to fight this problem is to have the correct anti-spyware and other protective software installed, regularly update and run the protection software and keep your operating system as up to date as possible with security patches.
Come back later or subscribe to our RSS Feed in order to find out more about how to remove spyware and other malicious software from your computer. In upcoming posts we will also be talking about protecting yourself and your loved ones from online identity theft.
Filed under: Internet, Security, Spyware Watch
I was curious to know where you got this image of the biohazard from. I am starting my own small computer system building business, and I was looking for the perfect Biohazard symbol to use as my logo.
I really do like this one and was hoping I could aquire proper permission to use it. Thank you