BotNet News

Malware (malicious software) is a term for apps or programs that can steal information, sabotage your devices and systems, hold your files hostage and do other malicious things. Cybercriminals use malware to profit from your loss or as a weapon in larger attack campaigns such as ransomware.

The first widely known modern malware was the Elk Cloner virus, which spread through floppy disks to Apple II systems in 1982. Since then, malware has evolved to target virtually every device connected to the Internet, including smartphones and tablets. It also has become increasingly sophisticated, with evasion techniques that can fool users, security administrators and antimalware tools, and fileless malware that avoids detection by residing solely in memory.

Detecting malware requires vigilance and careful analysis of all devices, applications and network traffic. Watch for the following indicators of a malware infection:

Unusual or unexplained data and energy usage (such as a sudden loss of available disk space or a swell in online activity that doesn’t correlate with your behavior). A “ransomware” app, which encrypts your data and demands payment to return it.

Computer viruses replicate themselves to spread from one file or program to another, while worms propagate across networks, and a logic bomb hides in a program until it is triggered by a specific user action or at a predetermined date and time. Other types of malware include backdoor viruses that open a secret entry point into an infected system, and adware that displays pop-up windows or changes browsers to show unwanted ads.