What Is Malware and How Does It Affect Your Computer?
Malware is a type of software that’s designed to damage or gain unauthorized access to your devices, computers, or networks. It can steal your data, encrypt or lock up systems, and even sabotage core computer functions without your knowledge or consent.
Malicious programs can spread from one device to another via email attachments, instant messaging, social media, file-sharing platforms, network shares, USB drives, or other malicious content. The most common malware types include viruses, worms, bots, keyloggers, and spyware. Viruses infect other programs and make them difficult to detect, while worms replicate like wildfire, taking advantage of security vulnerabilities to copy themselves and spread to new systems. Bots and keyloggers steal passwords, login information, and other sensitive data and send it to attackers. And cryptojacking hijacks your device to secretly mine cryptocurrencies, draining battery power and consuming computational resources.
A more recent trend in malware is fileless attacks, which use native tools built into the system to execute a cyber attack. This allows attackers to remain undetected and more difficult to stop. For example, Purple Fox memory code injection malware, which targets Windows systems, infects Microsoft PowerShell to spread through the system and evades detection by storing malicious code in the computer’s registry. And Mac dropper malware, such as Alchimist and KeRanger, infiltrates systems through bundled software packages.