BotNet News

Malware is software designed to steal sensitive information, spy on your online activity or cause damage to a computer, server or network. It is commonly installed on computers and mobile devices, but it can also infect smart TVs, connected cars and other electronic equipment. Attackers use a variety of techniques to trick victims into downloading malware onto their systems. These include email attachments, websites with malicious links, messages in social media and other apps like Slack or WhatsApp.

Once installed, malware typically receives commands from automatically operating command centers on the Internet – so-called ‘command and control’ servers. These serve as backdoors and allow attackers to remotely access an infected device. The malware can then send data, delete files or damage software – and even infect other machines on the same network.

Some of the most common forms of malware are viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. Viruses are self-replicating and can corrupt or destroy files. Worms exploit vulnerabilities in networking protocols and can spread from machine to machine without any human intervention. They can cause network congestion, system slowdowns and distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS).

Trojan horses masquerade as legitimate software to trick victims into installing them. Once installed, they can give attackers remote access to a device and steal or take over the machine entirely. They can also install additional software such as a keylogger to spy on your keyboard activity or cryptomining software to generate illicit revenue for the attacker.