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2 Computer Viruses, Malicious Logic, and Spyware
needs to contact the computer through installation of such program in order to
gain immediate access to the system or take control over certain software.
– Some backdoors infect computers by using certain software vulnerabilities known
to the intruder. They operate approximately like worms and distribute automatically without the user’s knowledge. The user cannot notice anything suspicious, as
such hazards don’t display any installation wizards, dialog windows, or warnings.
Widespread backdoors mostly infect computers with Microsoft Windows system.
However, many of the less popular parasites are designed for operation in different
spheres, e.g., for the Mac operating system and other systems.
Software backdoor allows intruders to work with the infected PC as if it were their
own and use them for various, mostly malicious ends or even criminal activities. It is
often really difficult to determine who is controlling the parasite. In fact, backdoors
are extremely hard to find. They can compromise user’s confidentiality for several
months or even years before the user notices them. The intruder can use this loophole to find out everything about the user, acquire and disclose confidential information, such as passwords, logins, credit card numbers, exact details of bank accounts,
personal valuable documents, contacts, even interests, web browsing patterns, and
much more. Program backdoors can also be used for destructive purposes. If a hacker
fails to obtain any valuable or useful information from the infected computer or has
already stolen it, they can ultimately destroy the entire system to hide their tracks.
This means that all hard drives will be formatted, and all files will be ultimately
deleted from them.
When a program backdoor finds a way to the attacked computer system, it causes
the following actions:
– Allows the intruder to create, delete, rename, copy or edit any file, perform various
commands, change any system settings, change the Windows register, run, control
or delete applications, and install other software;
– Allows the intruder to control hardware devices of the computer, change settings
related to computer shutdown or reset without user’s permission or knowledge;
– Steals personal information, valuable documents, passwords, logins, identity data,
user activity logs, and tracks the web browsing patterns;
– Records all button pressings and takes screenshots, sends the collected data to
specific e-addresses, loads them to a specified FTP server, or transfers them via
Internet to remote hosts specified in advance;
– Infests files and installed applications and damages the entire system;
– Distributes infected files to remote computers with certain security vulnerabilities
and in separate cases attacks other hackers on remote hosts;
– Installs a hidden FTP server that can be used by intruders for various purposes,
mostly illegal.
Let us take a brief look at the most popular types of software backdoors.
Even these examples demonstrate how functional and extremely dangerous these
parasites can be.
2 Computer Viruses, Malicious Logic, and Spyware
needs to contact the computer through installation of such program in order to
gain immediate access to the system or take control over certain software.
– Some backdoors infect computers by using certain software vulnerabilities known
to the intruder. They operate approximately like worms and distribute automatically without the user’s knowledge. The user cannot notice anything suspicious, as
such hazards don’t display any installation wizards, dialog windows, or warnings.
Widespread backdoors mostly infect computers with Microsoft Windows system.
However, many of the less popular parasites are designed for operation in different
spheres, e.g., for the Mac operating system and other systems.
Software backdoor allows intruders to work with the infected PC as if it were their
own and use them for various, mostly malicious ends or even criminal activities. It is
often really difficult to determine who is controlling the parasite. In fact, backdoors
are extremely hard to find. They can compromise user’s confidentiality for several
months or even years before the user notices them. The intruder can use this loophole to find out everything about the user, acquire and disclose confidential information, such as passwords, logins, credit card numbers, exact details of bank accounts,
personal valuable documents, contacts, even interests, web browsing patterns, and
much more. Program backdoors can also be used for destructive purposes. If a hacker
fails to obtain any valuable or useful information from the infected computer or has
already stolen it, they can ultimately destroy the entire system to hide their tracks.
This means that all hard drives will be formatted, and all files will be ultimately
deleted from them.
When a program backdoor finds a way to the attacked computer system, it causes
the following actions:
– Allows the intruder to create, delete, rename, copy or edit any file, perform various
commands, change any system settings, change the Windows register, run, control
or delete applications, and install other software;
– Allows the intruder to control hardware devices of the computer, change settings
related to computer shutdown or reset without user’s permission or knowledge;
– Steals personal information, valuable documents, passwords, logins, identity data,
user activity logs, and tracks the web browsing patterns;
– Records all button pressings and takes screenshots, sends the collected data to
specific e-addresses, loads them to a specified FTP server, or transfers them via
Internet to remote hosts specified in advance;
– Infests files and installed applications and damages the entire system;
– Distributes infected files to remote computers with certain security vulnerabilities
and in separate cases attacks other hackers on remote hosts;
– Installs a hidden FTP server that can be used by intruders for various purposes,
mostly illegal.
Let us take a brief look at the most popular types of software backdoors.
Even these examples demonstrate how functional and extremely dangerous these
parasites can be.