#092 - Definitions - Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Adware, Spyware, Spam, etc

What are Viruses? Worms? Trojan Horses? Adware? Spyware? Firewalls? Spam? Popups? Here, let me help:

Viruses

A virus is a software program that is capable of replicating with little or no user intervention, and the replicated programs also replicate further. Viruses piggyback on real programs. For example, a virus may attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs as well, and it has the opportunity to reproduce by attaching to other programs. The purpose of a virus can be anything from erasing files, formatting your hard drive, to replacing text in your document Viruses are often disguised as games or images with clever titles such as "Pictures of ME".

E-mail Viruses

An email virus moves around in e-mail messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to the people in the victim's e-mail address book.

Worms

A worm is a virus that spreads by creating duplicates of itself on other drives, systems, or networks. Worms may send copies of themselves to other computers across network connections, through e-mails, through infected web pages, or through instant messages.

Trojan Horses

This program may claim to do one thing, such as being a game, but instead does damage when you run it. Trojan horses are not technically viruses, since they do not replicate.

Why are they called Trojan Horses? Think about the story of Troy, and it's similar in nature. The virus hides itself inside another program, comes out to do damage, and so on.

Adware

Adware is added to your computer generally without your knowledge when you download anything free over the Internet. This method of downloading is known as "stealth software" or "drive-by downloads".

Your computer could have been infected by mal-ware during online activities such as downloading music, pictures, shareware programs like screensavers and animated cursors, popup ads, email attachments or by even visiting some websites that use Active X coding to insert parasites onto your computer.

Pay particular attention to the fine print when downloading anything over the Internet. Some programs include brief information in the Terms and Conditions related to serving you targeted ads based on your shopping habits.

Adware programs gather information from your computer for marketing purposes. The information is used to decide, for instance, which advertisements to display when you are on a specific Web site or which advertisements to display in pop-up windows on your desktop.

Spyware

Spyware is software that gathers user information through the user's Internet connection usually without his or her knowledge, typically for advertising purposes. Spyware is downloaded through the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about email addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.

Hackers/Crackers

Firewalls keep people from accessing your computer with malicious intent when you are connected to the internet. A firewall allows "good" data traffic and will block all "bad" data traffic.

An example of good traffic would be surfing the web, downloading reputable files, chatting, etc. The things you enjoy doing on your computer.

The bad traffic is what hackers/crackers enjoy doing on your computer such as stealing files, using a Trojan to control your computer, and disrupting your connection or network. Every computer contains ports which are entrances for hackers to invade your computer. A firewall goes to each of these ports and monitors everything that is going in and out of your computer, it makes sure that the proper ports that allow the "good" data are opened, and it closes the ports to "bad" data.

Spam

Spam is unsolicited email, not unwanted email. If you have signed up for an email list and receive an email that is not spam. If you unsubscribe to that list and continue to receive emails then that becomes spam.

While spam is annoying it is generally not dangerous to you or your PC. In January of 2004 the federal Can Spam law took effect with broad reaching requirements and penalties.

Tip: if you see a company name and address at the bottom of an email, that generally means you can use the remove link and it will be honored as they are following the Can Spam law. If you do not see an address and only a remove link, then it is not a good idea to use that link as that would indicate a live email address to the spammers.

Popups

There are two distinct types of popups.

Browser based popups - when you are visiting a website and the website generates a popup.

Adware based popups - when you are not "moving around" the internet and just start getting popups. Both tend to be annoying but may not be dangerous.

Hope these helped!

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