Why Malware Is A Serious Threat To Your PC

The earliest computer viruses were distributed via floppy discs and were generally annoying rather than harmful. But with the rise of the Internet and superfast broadband connections it’s easier than ever for viruses and other malware to spread.

Their nature has changed too and they’re often part of wider criminal activity.
There are several different types of malware, so let’s take a look at the most common variants and the nature of the threat they present.

Viruses

In their early days viruses tended to be created by amateurs and would be aimed at causing irritation (such as by displaying messages on the screen or deleting files) rather than anything more dangerous. But with the rise of the Internet it’s become possible for viruses to have criminal intent.

Modern viruses will try to snoop on your key strokes to steal login passwords or your credit card and bank details. The way they’re distributed has changed too. In the past you had to click on a file attached to an email in order to get infected.

Whilst this still happens, you’re now more likely to pick up a “drive-by” infection by visiting a booby-trapped website. Don’t think that you have to frequent the darker corners of the Internet to be caught out in this way either, malware can often lurk in hijacked adverts or links even on legitimate, big name sites.

Trojans

Named after the Trojan Horse of classical myth, a Trojan virus aims to take control of your PC. Once it’s succeeded in doing so it may open the door for the installation of other malware aimed at stealing your personal details.

It may also turn your PC into part of a remotely controlled “botnet”. This is a collection of machines, known as “zombies”, which can be manipulated by the Trojan’s creators and used to send out spam emails or take part in denial of service attacks against websites.

[Image Credits:topnews.ae]

Spyware

As its name suggests, spyware is intended to snoop on your activities. Typically it will watch the websites that you visit and use the information gathered to target you with advertising or pop-up messages.

Although it’s sometimes seen as a lesser threat, spyware can be just as bad as other types of malware. It can slow down your system, it may also hijack your Web browser, redirecting searches to sites where the spyware creators earn money from a pay-per-click scheme.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a relatively new phenomenon. It comes in the form of software that will lock you out of your PC and then attempt to get you to pay in order to get it released. It will usually be in the form of a fake anti-virus program that will claim your PC is infected or as a “fine” claiming you’ve visited illegal websites.


Needless to say, in either case, the last thing you should do is pay up. Even if your machine does get unlocked as a result you’ll probably end up with more malware. Ransomware is hard to remove and you’ll probably need the help of a computer repair specialist in order to get rid of it.

Rootkits

A rootkit is a particular type of virus that hides itself deep within the system. It’s designed to hide the activity of processes from normal methods of detection. It can thus prevent an anti-virus program from seeing the signature of a virus or Trojan. Rootkits generally need administrator access in order to install and so will use social engineering techniques to trick you into loading them.

All of this may seem scary but if you have a good anti-virus program installed and keep both it and your operating system up to date you should be safe.

  Jann Webb

About the Guest Author:

Jann Webb is a freelance writer and PC geek with long experience of computer repair and virus removal.