-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathmalware.html
114 lines (101 loc) · 7.44 KB
/
malware.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="keywords" content="">
<title>Computers for the Technophobe</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="main.css">
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Ubuntu" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">
</head>
<body class="my-body">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div id="b-placeholder">
</div>
<script>
$(function () {
$("#b-placeholder").load("menu.html");
});
</script>
</div>
<img class="pull-left" src="images/angry_computer.jpg" alt="Guy fuming at computer" style="margin: 5px 10px 10px 0; border-radius: 5px;">
<h1>What is Malware?</h1>
<p>The term malware is short for Malicious Software. It's a category of software that is specifically designed for malicious
purposes, or which pretends to server one purpose for the user and adding another (hidden) purpose of the creator
without your knowledge. Malware can be hidden in what seems to be legitimate software, sometimes that was the intent
of the developer and others someone edits the software after they have released it without the creator knowing.</p>
<p>Viruses are the type of malware that everyone tends to know and worry about, but not all malware is a virus. Other categories
of malware include:</p>
<ul>
<li>trojans - disguises itself as a legitimate piece of software, can create backdoors to allow other forms of malware
onto your computer</li>
<li>spyware - runs in the background and gathers information which it usually sends off to its creator. The information
can be as benign as logging your internet history to decide which ads to show you, and more sinister purposes
such as attempting to capture username and password information which can be then used to hack your online accounts</li>
<li>worms - these are programs set to self-replicate through whatever means they can. Sometimes there is no real purpose
to the infection other than for the developer to see how many systems they can infect before being found. Mostly
though, once the worm has infected a machine, it will then deliver its "payload". The payload could be almost
anything, but frequently it includes deleting files, encrypting files for extortion, installs a remote access
capability to the machine (allows someone else to use your machine without you knowing it to distribute spam
or more malware), or extracts data from your system.</li>
</ul>
<p>There are many other forms of malware, these are just some of the most common. The purposes of malware range from mildly
annoying (increases pop-up ads when browsing the internet) to severe consequences like bank account hacking or extortion
to unencrypt essential files.</p>
<h2>How does malware spread?</h2>
<p>Malware can be spread in several different ways. Some are able to spread themselves by searching from an infected machine
and seeing if they can copy themselves to other machines through either physical or network connections. Others hide
themselves in websites, software or data files and wait for someone to install them. A third common way they spread
is by sending spam messages (fake emails) with a link and hoping someone will click the link which then installs
the malware.</p>
<h2>How do you prevent malware affecting your machine?</h2>
<p>There a number of ways you can stop your machine getting infected by malware. Here are the most common:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don't click links in emails!
<p>One of the easiest ways to reduce the changes of being infected is don't click links you weren't expecting in
emails. If you aren't 100% sure it's legitimate, don't touch it. For example, if you asked to reset a password
you forgot for a website and 3 minutes later you get the email saying "click here to reset" then you are
almost certainly OK to click the link. However if a website sends you a link asking you to verify your password
out of the blue, it's probably a fake and the link will almost certainly be some form of malicious attempt
to install malware or to record your password. If "Aunty Joan" sent you a link to a funny website, call or
text and make sure it really was her who sent it, if she's been hacked herself email verification can't be
trusted. I've seen it happen where someone replied to an email they thought was suspicious asking for verification.
The sender responded it was legitimate so they opened the link - except the sender had been hacked and it
was the hacker monitoring the account who verified the email.</p>
</li>
<li>Make sure you have antivirus software, and keep it updated.
<p>Despite the name, viruses aren't the only forms of malware that an antivirus program can detect and deal with.
You'll have to do your own research what you think the best option would be as they all have their own strengths
and weaknesses so it's really down to cost benefit for your needs. Look up reviews and user feedback, see
how easy they are to set up and keep updated, and how effective they've been rated. Several computer magazines
do a comparison of the most popular each year or two, look them up online. Worst case, download one of the
free versions or turn on Windows Defender.</p>
</li>
<li>Run an antimalware program regularly
<p>The most well known of these is probably a program called MalwareBytes. Antimalware programs and antivirus programs
have a lot of overlap in what they protect against, however there are still differences. In general, antimalware
programs, will seek out a broader range of malware than antivirus programs, although the differences are
closing with new releases (and it does depend on the software providers coverage as well). MalwareBytes has
a free version that doesn't run scheduled scans or scan files as downloaded, but if you run a scan once a
week or so with this on top of your antivirus program you can sometimes find problems that missed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<b>NOTE:</b> You should NEVER have two antivirus programs running at the same time. They can get confused if they both
find the same virus and try to clean it at the same time, and they will "fight" for computer resources, slowing down
your machine a lot.</p>
<div class="container-fluid">
<div id="f-placeholder">
</div>
<script>
$(function () {
$("#f-placeholder").load("footer.html");
});
</script>
</div>
</body>
</html>