BotNet News

About Malware

Malware refers to any software that cybercriminals create to perform malicious activities, like stealing data, compromising systems and networks or disrupting business operations. Hackers typically deploy malware to gain illicit financial rewards. They also use it to steal intellectual property or to extort organizations and individuals, like the recent WannaCry ransomware attack.

What to Look For

There are many signs that a device may be infected with malware. Users might notice that their device’s performance has declined, that it’s crashing more frequently or that popup ads are appearing on their screen. IT support teams might see an influx of tickets from users complaining about these issues, as well as abnormal network activity like devices communicating with unknown servers or user accounts accessing assets they don’t usually use.

Other telltale signs include an unusual increase in security alerts, unauthorized changes to the device’s configuration or an influx of new and strange apps that appear on a device. Security solutions such as SIEM and SOAR platforms can centralize security alerts from various tools and make it easier to detect anomalies and recognize the early warning signs of malware.

Some malware types are designed to spread or replicate on their own, using tactics such as computer viruses that infect clean files and then infect other files or even entire systems, worms that can self-replicate between different apps or computers or botnets of infected devices used for attacks. Others, like adware, steal personal or confidential information without the user’s knowledge by monitoring keystrokes, tracking browsing history or harvesting social media posts and then selling this information to third parties. Others, like cryptojacking, hijack computing resources to mine cryptocurrency for attackers’ financial gain.