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2 Computer Viruses, Malicious Logic, and Spyware
an attempt succeeds, the future of the company, which took years to build, can be
jeopardized in just a few seconds.
This process can be automated with a virus called a “network worm.”
Rootkits are in fact the more advanced directions of the aforementioned Trojan
horses. As security experts know, some antivirus companies do not share the concept
of rootkit and Trojans, attributing them to one large category of “malware.” However,
a Trojan hides on a computer, usually disguising itself as some well-known program
(for example, Spymaster sets up for MSN Messenger), and rootkit generally uses
more advanced methods for masking, only penetrating deep into the system.
It should be said that initially the word rootkit in slang of analysts stood for a set
of tools that allowed an attacker to return to the hacked system so that the system
administrator could not see it at all, and the system could not register it. For a long
time, such rootkit was a special privilege of Unix systems, but, as you know, good
ideas do not just disappear, and at the end of the twentieth century rootkit began to
appear, designed for Microsoft Windows as well.
A botnet (the term is derived from combinations of the words robot and network)
is the name of a computer network consisting of a certain number of hosts with
running bots—stand-alone software.
If switching to the professional language of information security specialists, you
should note this is not very pleasant moment for most PC users: most often a bot as
part of a botnet is a program that is secretly installed on a victim’s device and allows
an attacker to perform certain actions using the resources of the infected computer.
These certain actions are usually well-known media for sending spam, sorting
passwords on a remote system, denial-of-service attacks, and many others (Fig. 2.1).
Experts usually call those viruses as worms that spread only on global networks,
attacking entire systems, rather than individual programs. This is the most dangerous
type of viruses today, as in this case, information systems of the national scale become
the targets of an attack. With the advent of the global Internet, this type of security
violation today poses the greatest threat, since any of the 40 million computers
connected to this network may be infected.
Backdoor (back door) is a set of special programs that an attacker installs on the
computer attacked by him after gaining initial access, usually in order to get access
to the system again.
The main purpose of the Backdoor virus is to create covert computer management.
As a rule, Backdoor allows you to copy individual files from the affected computer
and, conversely, transfer files and programs to the affected computer. In addition,
usually Backdoor allows you to get remote access to the registry and perform system
operations (restarting PCs, creating new network resources, modifying passwords,
etc.).
Computer Virus Protection Methods
Whatever the virus, the user needs to know the basic computer virus protection
methods.
To protect against viruses, you can use
2 Computer Viruses, Malicious Logic, and Spyware
an attempt succeeds, the future of the company, which took years to build, can be
jeopardized in just a few seconds.
This process can be automated with a virus called a “network worm.”
Rootkits are in fact the more advanced directions of the aforementioned Trojan
horses. As security experts know, some antivirus companies do not share the concept
of rootkit and Trojans, attributing them to one large category of “malware.” However,
a Trojan hides on a computer, usually disguising itself as some well-known program
(for example, Spymaster sets up for MSN Messenger), and rootkit generally uses
more advanced methods for masking, only penetrating deep into the system.
It should be said that initially the word rootkit in slang of analysts stood for a set
of tools that allowed an attacker to return to the hacked system so that the system
administrator could not see it at all, and the system could not register it. For a long
time, such rootkit was a special privilege of Unix systems, but, as you know, good
ideas do not just disappear, and at the end of the twentieth century rootkit began to
appear, designed for Microsoft Windows as well.
A botnet (the term is derived from combinations of the words robot and network)
is the name of a computer network consisting of a certain number of hosts with
running bots—stand-alone software.
If switching to the professional language of information security specialists, you
should note this is not very pleasant moment for most PC users: most often a bot as
part of a botnet is a program that is secretly installed on a victim’s device and allows
an attacker to perform certain actions using the resources of the infected computer.
These certain actions are usually well-known media for sending spam, sorting
passwords on a remote system, denial-of-service attacks, and many others (Fig. 2.1).
Experts usually call those viruses as worms that spread only on global networks,
attacking entire systems, rather than individual programs. This is the most dangerous
type of viruses today, as in this case, information systems of the national scale become
the targets of an attack. With the advent of the global Internet, this type of security
violation today poses the greatest threat, since any of the 40 million computers
connected to this network may be infected.
Backdoor (back door) is a set of special programs that an attacker installs on the
computer attacked by him after gaining initial access, usually in order to get access
to the system again.
The main purpose of the Backdoor virus is to create covert computer management.
As a rule, Backdoor allows you to copy individual files from the affected computer
and, conversely, transfer files and programs to the affected computer. In addition,
usually Backdoor allows you to get remote access to the registry and perform system
operations (restarting PCs, creating new network resources, modifying passwords,
etc.).
Computer Virus Protection Methods
Whatever the virus, the user needs to know the basic computer virus protection
methods.
To protect against viruses, you can use