Viruses: Viruses are sections of program code that attach themselves to other programs; they are often destructive and even when they aren’t they slow your computer down. In general, a virus is harmless until someone actually runs the program it is attached to. Viruses are generally spread when people share files with each other, often in email attachments.
Worms: A worm is a kind of virus that spreads itself. Once activated, a worm will use your computer’s normal functions to spread copies of itself. A very common method is for a worm to send a copy of itself to everyone in your email address book. Their computers will then become infected and so the infection will spread. Worms which replicate exponentially like this can cause severe disruption to email systems because of the weight of traffic they generate. Some worms have been known to open security breaches on infected systems, allowing hackers to gain access. (See below).
One of the problems associated with worms is spoofing. Many worms can not only send copies of themselves to addresses gathered from the address book on the infected machine, they can also make it appear that the messages came from one (or more) of those addresses, rather than from the infected machine itself.
Trojans: These are destructive or damaging programs that appear to be benign. They often arrive as innocent email attachments (which might appear to be a photo, web link or text file, for example). They usually appear to be from an apparently innocent source, but when opened they can cause all sorts of trouble. Some are simply a nuisance, changing you desktop settings, for example; some are known to delete or change files; and some are known to open your computer to attacks by hackers, or even to collect sensitive data, such as passwords and send them hackers.
Keyloggers: these are programs that are installed secretly on your computer and which then monitor every key you press on the keyboard, sending some or all of the collected data back to a hacker who can then search for passwords that you have typed in.
Drive by Downloads: Some websites contain code that will download malware (viruses / trojans etc.) to your computer simply by viewing the that website. Sometimes these sites may be deliberately designed to cause infections in this way, but it is also possible for innocent websites to be attacked by criminals who infect them without their owner’s knowledge. Many security programs now have the ability to warn you about infected sites.
Rogue Security Products: Unknown to you, your computer is infected by a program which pretends to be an internet security program. The first you know about it is when you get a warning on your screen telling you that your computer has multiple infections. The warning looks genuine and seems to be from a security program that you didn’t know you had. The warning will keep appearing and may even prevent you from doing anything else with your computer. As well as warning you about the “infections” you will be offered the chance to fix them (by buying a new piece of security software).
The facts of the matter are that i) the infections that you are being warned about are actually caused by the rogue program, ii) any software that you download will either not fix the infections or will introduce further hidden infections, such as keyloggers.
Hackers: These are people (or automated systems) that attempt to gain access to your computer, usually to gather sensitive data such as passwords, credit card numbers etc. which can then be used for nefarious purposes.
KEEPING YOUR PC HEALTHY & CLEAN
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