Threats Explained

[Madani Munna]

Taken 4rom TSBay

 

Adware

A type of Advertising Display Software, specifically certain executable applications whose primary purpose is to deliver advertising content potentially in a manner or context that may be unexpected and unwanted by users. Many adware applications also perform tracking functions, and therefore may also be categorized as Tracking Technologies. Some consumers may want to remove Adware if they object to such tracking, do not wish to see the advertising caused by the program, or are frustrated by its effects on system performance. On the other hand, some users may wish to keep particular adware programs if their presence subsidizes the cost of a desired product or service or if they provide advertising that is useful or desired, such as ads that are competitive or complementary to what the user is looking at or searching for. (Source: Anti-Spyware Coalition)

 

 

BOT

Short for "Robot" a bot is a program that is designed to automate tasks. Initially bots were used in the UNIX world to automate dull tasks that system administrators frequently perform. Some bots will automatically chat with a user, simulating a human response to questions. Bots can also be used maliciously to allow a remote attacker to control a victims PC. The nature of many bots is such that it is as easy to control one PC as one hundred thousand PCs. Bots can be used to send spam, download and store illegal files, such as some types of , or to make computers participate in attacks on other computers. A bot can be made to search the victim's hard drive and send confidential information to a remote site on the internet in order to perform identity theft. Computers that are infected with bots are often called drones or zombies.

 

 

BOTNET

A botnet is a group of bot infected PCs that are all controlled by the same "command and control center". Recently peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets have been used. These botnets do not have a traditional command and control center but they are all part of the same "army".

 

 

Hoaxes

Hoaxes are usually silly pranks, and are a form of chain mail, and are often also Urban Legends.

Computer Virus hoaxes try to generate fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in the recipients, bringing them to believe that there is an 'undetectable virus' on their system (how can it be undetectable if you can detect it?). Some have actually been malicious in content, causing the recipient to delete files from their systems. They should simply be deleted. There is no good luck from sending them to 20 of your friends, nor are they a way in which you will learn anything about the security of your computer.

Snopes is an excellent resource on hoaxes, urban legends and scams http://www.snopes.com

The Electronic Ephemera site contains information about many of the common hoaxes, and a lot of information about scams such as the advanced fraud fee scams http://www.virushoax.co.uk

US Dept. of Energy, Computer Incident Advisory Capability, see: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/index.html

Hoax Busters, http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxCategories.html

 

 

Malware

Malware stands for MALicious SoftWARE. Terms such as Virus, Trojan, Worm, and Bot all have specific meanings. Malware is used to generically describe any malicious software, regardless of its technical category.

 

 

Payload

The additional functionality, for instance data stealing, file deletion, disk overwriting, BIOS flashing etc that may be included in a virus worm or Trojan Horse. Note that the payload does not necessarily have to be damaging - for instance the payload of the Form.A virus was to make the keyboard make clicking noises on one day a month - it did no damage other than that. In the case of a Trojan, it is the 'secret' function that the programmer wanted to achieve.

 

 

Phishing

Phishing (pronounced in the same way as fishing) is a social engineering attack which attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive personal information, such as passwords and/or credit card details.

Usually this is achieved by sending e-mail (or similar communication) masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with an apparently legitimate request for information. The most common Phishes look as though they come from popular high-street banks, and usually contain some sort of threat of discontinuation of service, or other undesirable consequence if the instructions are not followed. Sometimes a the mail will look very genuine, and will contain branding and content which may have originally come from the source that it is impersonating. Usually there will be a link in the mail that will take the recipient to a website (which also may look very much like the legitimate site), and this site will be used to capture the details being 'phished'. It is important to remember that banks, and legitimate companies like Ebay or PayPal will never request usernames and passwords in unsolicited email. It is also worth bearing in mind that the links in phishing emails although they may look legitimate, will almost always point to a different site underneath. Always open a new browser session and type the correct address into the Address bar when you are trying to get to your internet bank or other online services.

 

 

Rootkit

A rootkit is a collection of one or more tools designed to covertly maintain control of a computer.

Initially rootkits appeared on the UNIX operating systems (including Linux) and were a collection of one or more tools which allowed an attacker to gain and keep access to the most privileged user on the computer (on UNIX systems this user is called 'root' - hence the name) On Windows based systems, rookits have more commonly been associated with tools used for hiding programs or processes from the users. When installed a Windows rootkit uses functions in the operating system to hide itself, so as not to be detected, and is often used to hide other malicious programs such as keystroke loggers. The use of rootkits is not necessarily malicious, but they have come to be increasingly associated with undesirable behavior and malicious software.

 

 

Scams

Scams are very similar to phishing, but are not usually interested in obtaining your details, they often appeal to a sense of compassion or to human greed. For instance, almost every disaster (earthquake, flood, war, famine) has generated large amounts of scams, usually in the form of appeals for charitable aid for a 'worthy' cause. Advanced Fee Frauds (sometimes called 419 scams) offer you the opportunity to get a large amount of money by supposedly helping the scammer to transfer even larger sums of money out of a country (often an African country such as Nigeria). These scams always result in you being asked to send the scammer some money to cover "administration" costs (often this is several thousands of dollars). Sometimes, these scams have resulted in the person being scammed disappearing, either killed or kidnapped after traveling to another country to meet their 'benefactor'. In less extreme cases, many people have lost thousands and thousands of dollars to these frauds. Some tips for avoiding such scams:

Legitimate charities usually only send appeal emails to people who have explicitly chosen (opted in) to receive emails from the organization. Unsolicited, such emails are almost always fraudulent - particularly ones that appear quickly after a disastrous event.

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