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Antivirus Malware and Software (Page 1 of 2)

Warning: most antivirus programs will not protect you against all forms of malignant software (often called “malware”) on their own. Find out how to protect yourself.

Sure, your antivirus software will protect you against viruses. It will probably even do a good job against worms. But what Trojans, exploits, backdoors, spyware and the dozen other nasty software parasites?

Malware and Antivirus Software: a History

The war on computer viruses has led to an arms race between the designers of antivirus software and the designers of viruses (you didn’t think viruses just created themselves did you?). Some years ago, virus designers responded to ever more successful antivirus software by creating the descendents of viruses, worms, which did not infect files but rather installed themselves directly on the hard drive, making them harder to detect.

The arms race has since led to a total of at least eleven distinct types of what is now called malware, a neologism meaning bad (as in malignant rather than shoddy) software. According to Wikipedia, these eleven types of malware are:

1. Virus 2. Worm 3. Wabbit 4. Trojan 5. Backdoor 6. Spyware 7. Exploit 8. Rootkit 9. Key Logger 10. Dialer 11. URL injection

There’s a twelfth kind of malware: adware, which Wikipedia considers simply to be a subset of spyware.

Why Antivirus Software Isn’t Enough for Malware

As you can see, makers of antivirus software have their work cut out for them if they’re going to keep every instance of malware off your system. As a result, antivirus software makers have often had to pick their battles. Adware, whose makers often claim they are doing nothing illegal or even questionable, often gets treated more lightly.

Even when antivirus software makers do come out with a product that fights all twelve or so kinds of malware, responding to each new instance of malware to come on the market isn’t easy. First the malware has to be identified, which means someone’s computer, and probably tens of thousands of computers, will be infected first. Then, the malware has to be dissected. Then a removal program and a filter must both be written. Then the removal program and filter must be tested to make sure they work, and that they don’t interfere with any other functions of the antivirus software or the computer itself. When a fix for the virus is out, it then has to be loaded into an antivirus software update and transmitted to every single computer worldwide that has the antivirus software installed.

The speed with which antivirus software makers are able to deliver updates for newly discovered malware would impress even Santa Claus. Yet there’s still a crucial window of one to a few days between when the new malware has reached a critical mass of thousands of computers, and when the update is released. If your antivirus software is not set to check for updates automatically every hour or so, that window opens even wider.

Learn How You Can Stop Spyware From Entering Your Computer

Older kids and teenagers are often the victims of computer virus and spyware. This is because they frequent sites that contain spyware or share computer viruses from computer to computer. So, if you have kids who share a computer with you, then it is highly possible that your computer is home to viruses and spyware.

To prevent further invasion and a possible computer crash, it is important to teach your children how to avoid attracting computer viruses and spyware.

1. Avoid peer-to-peer sharing. As human viruses are transmitted by person-to-person contact, computer viruses, are transmitted from computer to computer, often via p2p file-sharing. It is essential, therefore, to teach your kids not to use these programs. Peer-to-peer file-sharing softwares known to hold malicious contents are Kazaa and Grokster. If possible, get the paid versions of p2p file sharing softwares since they are virus, adware, and spyware free.

2. Avoid entering lyrics and music sites. Many of these sites tend to insist that you download ActiveX control first before you can enter their websites. If you are going to think about it, ActiveX control has no relation to viewing music lyrics as they are just ordinary texts. To make matters worst, kids aren’t aware of the danger of downloading such programs from these sources; so spyware can easily penetrate and bring you inconvenience.

3. Don’t click on banners, advertisements and popups from webpages. Often, viruses, adware, and spyware enter the computer because kids ask for it. The sad thing though is that kids are unaware that the things they do are the exact things that invite these malicious programs. What you should do is to tell them that they should never click on any banners, advertisements and popups they see online.

4. Don’t download email attachments from unknown sender. Kids are eager to open emails. But if they are from unknown senders, then they may contain viruses, spyware or adware. Tell them never in any circumstances would they download attachments without your permission.

5. Give you kids limited computer accounts. Whether your kids have their own computer in their room or share one with you, keep their accounts “limited” so that you (administrator) have the control on the things that can be done by your kids.

Remember this: It is your responsibility to tell your kids about the dangers that these threats can give.

Learn How You Can Stop Spyware From Entering Your Computer

Older kids and teenagers are often the victims of computer virus and spyware. This is because they frequent sites that contain spyware or share computer viruses from computer to computer. So, if you have kids who share a computer with you, then it is highly possible that your computer is home to viruses and spyware.

To prevent further invasion and a possible computer crash, it is important to teach your children how to avoid attracting computer viruses and spyware.

1. Avoid peer-to-peer sharing. As human viruses are transmitted by person-to-person contact, computer viruses, are transmitted from computer to computer, often via p2p file-sharing. It is essential, therefore, to teach your kids not to use these programs. Peer-to-peer file-sharing softwares known to hold malicious contents are Kazaa and Grokster. If possible, get the paid versions of p2p file sharing softwares since they are virus, adware, and spyware free.

2. Avoid entering lyrics and music sites. Many of these sites tend to insist that you download ActiveX control first before you can enter their websites. If you are going to think about it, ActiveX control has no relation to viewing music lyrics as they are just ordinary texts. To make matters worst, kids aren’t aware of the danger of downloading such programs from these sources; so spyware can easily penetrate and bring you inconvenience.

3. Don’t click on banners, advertisements and popups from webpages. Often, viruses, adware, and spyware enter the computer because kids ask for it. The sad thing though is that kids are unaware that the things they do are the exact things that invite these malicious programs. What you should do is to tell them that they should never click on any banners, advertisements and popups they see online.

4. Don’t download email attachments from unknown sender. Kids are eager to open emails. But if they are from unknown senders, then they may contain viruses, spyware or adware. Tell them never in any circumstances would they download attachments without your permission.

5. Give you kids limited computer accounts. Whether your kids have their own computer in their room or share one with you, keep their accounts “limited” so that you (administrator) have the control on the things that can be done by your kids.

Remember this: It is your responsibility to tell your kids about the dangers that these threats can give.