Viruses

KNOWING YOUR ENEMY IS THE KEY, AND IF INFECTED, SEARCH AND DESTROY IMMEDIATELY.

Here at the IT Fortress we have studied malicious programs (viruses) for many years and have found a great benefit with this knowledge and understanding to our teams troubleshooting techniques. Anti-Virus software installed on your PCs should be kept up-to-date and we can test remotely if your software is functioning correctly, and remove most viruses providing we can maintain the remote connection to your PC/Laptop.

 

The history of computer viruses goes back to the early 1970s but 'computer virus' originally comes from the term 'computer bug' which came from an actual bug (moth, I believe) that got stuck in an m.i.t. super-computer in the 1950's causing the super-computer to short out and stop working.

 

 

 

Computer Viruses come in many different formats and are written to cause many different problems. Listed below are some details;

 

Adware - Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software.

 

Computer Worm - A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or devour files on a targeted computer.

 

Multipartite Virus - A multipartite virus is a computer virus that infects and spreads in multiple ways. For a complete cleanup, all parts of the virus must be removed.

 

Malware - A portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.[1] The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses.

 

Spyware - Is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to collect information about a user, their computer or browsing habits without the user's informed consent. Spyware is known to change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and/or loss of Internet or functionality of other programs. In an attempt to increase the
understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive
software.

 

Crimeware - Crimeware is a class of malware designed specifically to automate financial or political crime. Crimeware (as distinct from spyware, adware, and malware) is designed (through social engineering or technical stealth) to perpetrate identity theft in order to access a computer user's on-line accounts at financial services companies and on-line retailers for the purpose of taking funds from those accounts or completing unauthorized transactions that enrich the thief controlling the crimeware. Crimeware also often has the intent to export confidential or sensitive information from a network for financial exploitation. Crimeware represents a growing problem in network security as many malicious code threats seek to pilfer confidential information.

 

Trojan Horse Virus - The Trojan horse, also known as Trojan, in the context of computing and software, describes a class of computer threats (malware) that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions that allow unauthorized access to the host machine, giving them the ability to save their files on the user's computer or even watch the user's screen and control the computer. Trojan Horses (not technically a virus) can be easily and unwittingly downloaded. For example, if a computer game is designed such that, when executed by the user, it opens a back door that allows a hacker to control the computer of the user, then the computer game is said to be a Trojan horse.

 

Spam email - Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast mediums, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, on-line classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, and file sharing network spam.

 

Virus Hoax - Virus hoaxes are usually harmless and accomplish nothing more than annoying people who identify it as a hoax and waste the time of people who forward the message. However, a number of hoaxes have warned users that vital system files are viruses and encourage the user to delete the file, possibly damaging the system. Examples of this type include the jdbgmgr.exe virus hoax and the SULFNBK.EXE hoax.

 

Mobile Virus - A mobile virus is an electronic virus that targets mobile phones or wireless-enabled PDAs.

 

As wireless phone and PDA networks become more numerous and more complex, it has become more difficult to secure them against electronic attacks in the form of viruses or other malicious software (also known as malware).