Types of Malware (Useful Help For Beginners)

[thistledome]

Thought I’d add a few helpful definitions for any newcomers looking in.

Types of Malware

Adware. Stands for advertising-supported software and is meant to deliver advertisements automatically, for example pop-up ads on websites and ads displayed by software. It commonly gets downloaded bundled with other programs and is usually sponsored. Adware serves as a revenue generation tool for publishers. It may be very annoying but is not harmful on its own. Sometimes adware is bundled with spyware (see description below).

Virus. Is just another type of malware in a form of contagious piece of code capable of harming other software on the host system and spreading itself once run. It typically acts like a parasite, spreading itself when software is shared, infecting and damaging files.

 
Browser Hijacker. This type of malware is designed to change your browser's settings. Usually it changes your default browser, redirects to different sites and loads webpages slowly.

 
Worms. One of the most common types of malware. They harm infected systems by consuming bandwidth and overloading web servers. Sometimes worms carry “payloads”, which are pieces of code meant to perform different activity on the infected computer beyond just spreading the worm. Payloads are able to steal personal information, delete files and create botnets. Unlike viruses, whose spreading depends on users' activity, worms can self-replicate and spread independently. Mass e-mails with suspicious attachments are one of the ways to spread worms.

 
Spyware. This type of malware is used to spy on users' activity without their knowledge. It can collect keystrokes, monitor activity, harvest for data like account information, logins and passwords, etc. Additional capabilities allow spyware to modify security settings. It bundles with legitimate programs and is hardly detected by anti-virus software.

Trojan Horse. This type of malware tricks users into downloading and installing it by pretending to be genuine software. It can be dangerous by being able to give access to an infected computer to third parties. Thus, the attacker will be able to steal logins, financial info, web money and basically, gain control over your machine.

 
Ransomware. Is considered to be one of the most aggressive types of malware, which is able to restrict user's access to the computer by means of encrypting files on the hard drive or locking down the system. Ransomware holds computers hostage and blackmails users trying to get them to pay for opening the access to their computers. It spreads like a regular worm and ends up in the system after a file download.