Differences Between Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware and Malware

When we start to have problems on our PC ... the first thing we think about, is it a virus or is my PC broken?  Having a good antivirus is always important and much more in Windows.

If we investigate a little, we will find many terms: viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, malware, etc ... On this occasion, we bring you a brief guide of what they are and how each one of them acts within our computer.

Differences Between Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware, and Malware

The computer can be affected in many different ways by malicious software. There are several ways for them to enter your computer and different ways to defend yourself against these attacks. Among the different current threats we have:

Malware

The meaning of malware is a mixture of malicious and software. Malware is a broader concept of malicious programs. These execute commands for different purposes, such as invading a computer or system, causing damage, deleting information, stealing service passwords, and much more.

In most cases, a common computer user does not realize that he is infected. Also, a user calls all these infections as "viruses", this being a misnomer.

The malware is subdivided into other categories, and most likely will continue to evolve as criminals discover and invent the new methods of attacking computers. These categories include worms, viruses, Trojans, rootkits, spyware, and adware, among others. Let's see what it is and what each one does.

Virus

A virus is a malicious program that infects the system, making copies of itself and trying to spread to other computers, through email, social networks, input devices, or through the network, through which the computer is connected.

The objective of a virus is to impair the performance of a machine, destroy files, or spread to other computers. Thus, a computer can be highly vulnerable for malicious people to steal data such as personal files, passwords, and credit card numbers, for example.

Most of the time, the antivirus is unable to detect 100% of the threats that reach your computer. Sometimes there are also false positive detections, which can suppress programs that are safe for you, but which are threats to the antivirus. To guarantee the protection of your equipment, it is essential to carry out preventive maintenance work.

Most infections are caused by the action of the user executing the infected file received as an e-mail attachment.

The contamination may also occur through infected files on a flash drive (USB) or CD / DVD. Another form of contamination is through an outdated operating system, which without security fixes (to correct known vulnerabilities in operating systems or applications), could cause the virus to be received and executed without knowing it.

There are also some types of viruses that hide at specific times, running later at scheduled times. Those who develop such viruses are people with great knowledge of programming and the operating system of computers.

On the Internet, there is a large trade in viruses, mainly those that serve to steal passwords and credit cards. Until a few years ago, most viruses only spread through file sharing on a floppy disk. Who doesn't remember them? However, with the popularization of the Internet, new forms of infection and viruses emerged, such as through e-mail, through instant messaging, and infected HTML pages.

User protection basically consists of not accessing files sent by strangers or that are suspicious and always keeping a good updated antivirus software.

Worms

The worms are spread as differential self without another program as with the virus. The main means of entry for this threat is through the Internet and it has already been the cause of great impact of the slowness on the web when some of these were not recognized by defense tools.

While a virus infects a program and needs this program to spread, the worm is a complete program and does not need another to spread.

A worm can be designed to take malicious actions after plaguing a system, in addition to self-replicating, it can delete files on a system or send documents by email.

From this, the worm can make the infected computer vulnerable to other attacks and cause damage only with the network traffic generated by its reproduction.

The Mydoom worm, for example, caused a widespread slowdown on the internet at the peak of its attack. To protect yourself from this threat, you must be careful when browsing the Internet, as well as accessing files sent by acquaintances through e-mail and not downloading them, as they may be infected.

Trojans

Trojan derives from the word Trojan Horse ( Trojan Horse ) and works secretly on your computer. It is hidden in a program that the user has downloaded, but after installation, it runs many other programs or commands without your permission.

Not all Trojans harm a computer. In some situations, it only installs on components unknown to the user. For this reason, it has been related to the Trojan Horse, in the historical context, since the user receives content that has a different purpose from the original.

Rootkits

Rootkits encompass some of the most feared known malware, as they attempt to control an operating system without the user's consent and without being detected.

The rootkits have the ability to hide from almost all antivirus programs through advanced programming code. And even if the user detects a rootkit file, in some cases it can be prevented from being removed. Rootkits are the most effective method to invade a system without being discovered.

Adware

The adware is uncomfortable and annoying programs that show up annoying ads automatically and constantly. These ads are almost always placed in your work area and can even interfere with the response time of your computer, undoubtedly affecting performance.

Currently, adware is considered a type of software, since it is intended to advertise and not harm a computer. Most of the time, the user accepts the installation, which came together with the installation of a useful program on the computer.

Spam

It is currently the best-known means of altering your email. Various laws have already been implemented to reduce the practice of improper shipments that cause us so much inconvenience on a day-to-day basis. This is possibly the most harmless and most visible disorder of our teams.

Spam is an unsolicited email message sent in bulk. In its most popular form, spam is an email message for advertising purposes. The term spam, however, can be applied to messages sent by other means and in other even modest situations. Who hasn't gotten the typical Viagra emails?

Spams are generally conspicuous and in the vast majority of the time, they are uncomfortable and inconvenient. These spam e-mails are only intended to advertise, however, in some cases they also include viruses, so even if they seem harmless, you need to be careful.

Spyware

Spy, in English, means spy, and it was with this feature that spyware emerged. In the beginning, spyware monitored pages visited and other browsing habits to inform webmasters. By having such information, site owners could better understand and reach users more effectively in advertisements, for example.

However, over time, spyware began to be used to steal personal information (such as user names and passwords) and also to modify computer settings (such as the home page of your browser).

Spyware became the target of specific programs. At present, spyware has been the focus of special attention of various companies that have developed specific programs in order to eliminate this type of malware.

The spyware collects information about the user, about their habits on the Internet and transmits this information to an external entity without your knowledge or consent.

They differ from Trojans by not aiming for the user's system to be dominated, or even manipulated, by an external entity. The spyware can be developed by commercial firms who wish to oversee the habit of users to evaluate their habits and sell this information through the Internet. In this way, these companies usually produce numerous variants of their spyware, perfecting and making it very difficult to eliminate them.

On the other hand, many of the viruses carry spyware, which aims to steal certain confidential data from users. They steal bank details, mount and send records of user activities, steal certain files, or other personal documents.

Often times, spyware used to be legally bundled with a shareware or freeware program. And it was eliminated when the purchase of the software was made or a more complete and paid version was changed.

Identity Theft (Phishing)

Its objective is to obtain confidential information by posing as a trusted person or institution and in this way obtain subsequent advantages with your credit card details and the like.

In computing, phishing is a form of electronic fraud, characterized by attempts to acquire confidential information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, by sending an official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. In the practice of phishing, increasingly sophisticated tricks arise to obtain confidential information of users.

Botnet

The so-called botnet is very difficult to be detected and analyzed as well, as it is quickly reconfigured and can be transmitted through links pointing to the IP addresses of infected websites.

It is currently considered the worst way to infect a computer, as it can attack an extremely large number of victims.

The botnets are a number of infected computers acting together (always controlled by a hacker) to attack a page, which is known as a DDoS attack. This causes thousands or millions of computers to overload the band of a website, which causes it to stop being online and have access disabled for a certain time.

Tips for Trying to Prevent an Infection

We leave you some tips, for us many are key:

• Use strong passwords, with alternate letters and numbers, case-insensitive.
• Change passwords periodically. Recommended every month to 6 months.
• Use only the updated and safe operating systems  or if you use Linux you are more protected.
• Always have a good updated antivirus on your computer  (our recommendation is complete security software) and, if possible, do a full system check on a regular basis.
• Do not open unknown attachments in emails, or messages in general.
• Don't download files from suspicious sites.
• Always be suspicious of any file received.