Malware is the short form for malicious software. Any type of software that can harm your computer is called malware.
What do malware do?
These malware (software programs) can collect personal information, delete files, steal passwords, or cause any kind of damage to a computer. Some malware programs transmit information about your Web-browsing habits to advertisers without your knowledge. Some other malware may make your computer stop from working.
How did such malware come into existence?
Well, some people develop malware to harm others and make money usually by stealing passwords and getting important information or deleting files. The owner of the computer will not be able to use their own computer after that.
How do malware get into someone’s computer?
The most common way through which malware get into a computer is the Internet – via email, free subscriptions, hacked websites, music files, game demos, or anything else you download from the Web. The developers of malware use a number of tricks to get users to download their malware. For example, a software that promises to speed up the Internet connection or assist with downloads may contain malware. An email may have a link or an attachment. A computer can also get affected from using any infected file from an external storage device such as a flash drive.
There are different types of malware. Here’s a peek into an important one
Virus
Virus is a software program that duplicates itself. It damages a computer by deleting files or affecting computer memory. It easily spreads to other computers and infects all of them in a network. Your computer can get affected by virus through USB drives, email attachments, clicking on an executable file, or visiting an infected website. Viruses can attach themselves to other programs to hide and run automatically when the program is executed. Once a virus has infected the host, it can infect other system software or resources. Some types of viruses are: file infectors, macro viruses, overwrite viruses, polymorphic viruses, and system or boot-record infectors. Some famous examples are Zeus, Melissa, etc. One must use a good anti-virus program to save the computer from getting infected by viruses.
The following symptoms indicate a computer being virus-infected
- Crashing of the computer
- Restarting of computer randomly
- Slow execution of programs
- Too many pop-up ads while browsing the Internet
- Text and graphics getting distorted
- Passwords not working properly
Did you know?
- The first-known computer virus was developed in 1971 by Robert Thomas, an engineer at BBN Technologies.
- Known as the “Creeper” virus, it infected mainframes on ARPANET, displaying the teletype message. “I’m the creeper: Catch me if you can.”
Picture Credit : Google