As this month is National Cybersecurity Month, we at Spaulding Hill Networks want to inform you of the many threats to your computer system and tips on how you can protect yourself and your computer from these threats. We kick off this month by explaining what exactly Malware is and what it does to your system.

Malware is the term for malicious software that wreaks havoc on your computer, network or mobile device and can be used to steal data from your technology infrastructure without your consent or knowledge. Malware is a generic term and covers a multitude of threats including:

Viruses – This is the most common form on Malware. Viruses are embedded into a program and are then spread from program to program. Viruses can harm a systems performance and destroy data. A virus can act immediately or lay dormant in your system for months-even up to a year.

Worms – Worms are like viruses in the fact that they both self replicate, but a worm is designed to spread at an alarmingly fast rate. Unlike a virus though, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms tend to consume storage and memory as well as bandwidth.

Trojan Horses- a Trojan Horse, is also much like a virus in the fact that it attaches itself either as a harmless application or to one; however a Trojan Horse cannot reproduce. Once a Trojan Horse is activated it can do many destructive tasks at once such as stealing your identity or financial information. It can also be set up to make the host system more susceptible to future attacks. It can destroy hard drive applications and data.

Rootkit – Rootkits are particularly dangerous because they are extremely difficult to detect and remove. They work by a hacker gaining access into your system through user level access and finding a vulnerability in your system or by cracking a password. From there, the rootkit can go undetected and gains root or confidential access into a single computer or network. Once inside they can detect passwords and other sensitive data.

Spam – One of the most common headaches is spam email. Besides being an obvious pain, spam email can lead you to web sites where viruses, worms, spyware and other types of malware can be installed onto your system(s).

Spyware – Spyware is software that is installed onto a computer to find out about a web surfer’s user habits. Spyware’s purpose is to exploit computers for commercial gain via pop-up ads, changing of home pages, theft of personal information and monitoring web browser activity for marketing purposes. Spyware makes its way onto a computer by piggybacking onto another downloadable software or disguising itself as useful software.

Botnets: Also known as ‘Zombie armies,’ are a number of computers that are transmitting viruses and spam to other computers without the owners knowledge. Most home personal computers fall victim to botnets. An owner can fall prey to botnets by not setting up proper firewalls or by leaving their Internet insecure.

Now that you know what Malware is – the next step is to know how to protect yourself from it. In Part 2 of our Cybersecurity Series we will give you tips on how you can ensure your computer and your sensitive data remains protected.

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