The Virus Databank will expose the definition of Malware, Trojans, Viruses, and the many other nasty little programs infecting your machine. Proper word definition is critical in understanding how to repair or maintain a computer in today's web world. When you go online, things change in a big way. You may feel like you are sitting at your desk in the privacy of your home or office, but really you have just ventured into the alleyways of deceit and danger! I do not say this to scare you, I simply want to clarify what today's web is about.
Today's computer infections are getting more advanced at hiding. They are tuff to find, and even more difficult to remove. They all have bad intentions; however they perform different tasks and work in very different ways. One of the ways they slip pass firewalls and other regular defenses is to install and register files in your registry and system processes so they can use approved ports to beacon a signal out to the World Wide Web. After they accomplish this task, they are simply recognized by your machine as safe. If you surf our site, you will find out about the latest threats, along with the proper tools to scrub up the infection, while defending your data.
Viruses are programs capable of replicating themselves with the intent to harm computer systems or files on your computer that give it harmful commands. They are responsible for Error Messages like "no DNS entry": An error message that means your browser couldn't find that address. DNS stands for Domain Name Server, and when you enter a web address and hit enter, the numbered address is matched to the name address, (for example: 111.222.112.211 = microsoft.com) and that is done by way of the domain name server. Error messages often mean the computer you were trying to access is either busy or not on-line. But sometimes they are the cause of viruses. They are destructive programs that disrupt the normal function of computer systems. The Programming code they use are designed to cause havoc to computer systems and will even spread by way of email sitting in your in-box. Probably the most well-known threat to you are the computer viruses. Because it can copy itself to other computers it can spread quickly from one system to the next. Viruses range from harmless messages to erasing all of your data and crashing your machine.
Trojans are software programs devised by professional hackers to detect activity on PC's, to allow the hacker to assume the user's identity. These programs are designed to appear useful but do tasks that the user may not want to do. They can do things without you be aware of it.
Keyloggers will track what you’re typing on your keyboard. This provides access to your most sensitive information. By installing this on your machine, someone can uncover your bank accounts, personal information, passwords, and absolutely everything you do on your computer!
Malware is a generic term increasingly being used to describe any form of malicious software. That is where the name came from (malicious software) and can be used to describe bad things like viruses, trojan horses, bots and any malicious active content or rogue programs or software that is designed by people to attack some part of a computer system. They can be hidden in the music you download or even in the jokes you are reading. All of the items listed on this page could be considered malware; however they are better understood if you look at each of the different tasks they do.
Adware while not necessarily malware, is considered to go beyond the reasonable advertising that one might expect from freeware or shareware. Typically a separate program that is installed at the same time as a shareware, freeware or similar program, it will usually continue to generate advertising even when the user is not running the originally desired program. See also cookies, spyware, and web bugs. Often times with software that is free to the user, supported by advertisers but is found with a lot of items you pay for like a new Mouse or Keyboard. It may have been installed on your computer by a remote site. Many free utilities that you download from the Internet will install hidden software that sends details of the websites you visit and other information from your computer (which can include your email address) to advertisers so they can target you with popup ads, banner ads and spam. See Spam, Spyware.
Spyware is a general term for a program that surreptitiously monitors your actions. While they are sometimes sinister, like a remote control program used by a hacker, software companies have been known to use Spyware to gather data about customers. The practice is generally frowned upon. A technology that assists in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. When you surf the Internet, "Spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties." As such, Spyware is cause for public concern about privacy on the Internet. It transmits user information via the Internet to their site. There are concerns that some Web sites and commercial organizations track user's online activity through the use of what is called ‘Spyware'. Sometimes coming in the form of ‘cookies' which enable the cookie writer to build-up information about what you do and where you go on the Web. Simply clearing your cookies file will not touch this ‘self protecting,’ hi-tech, hidden software. Don’t worry to much as we are here to help!
Hiddenware is the newest definition we came up with to cover the "legal" malware being installed on our machines today. There are some companies fighting to install their wares and then suing the scanning companies to remove their names from being detected by the tools we depend on for finding and removing unwanted programs. I hope you will join with us in our fight to expose them and demand for them to make their programs known in the 'add/remove section' of the windows XP control panel. I do not want to do business with these people and think their programs are malware of the worst kind! If they were legit, why would they hide it on your machine? We will be adding a list of these companies soon under our Hiddenware page, so check back and learn more about these hideous programs being installed without your permission and without a way of you uninstalling them.
Cookies are small files installed on your machine by the sites you visit. They generally are harmless and most sites require them to work correctly or to even let you in at all. They can be quite informative under malicious control. A website should only require basic info related to your machine like your browser version, monitor resolution, operating system and memory. The main reason a reputable website leaves a cookie is to remember all the personal or custom features you selected on this visit so when you return tomorrow, they can give you everything ’your way’ and not have to ask you again. Most all websites use at least one cookie per visit. The bad guys can infect you and even read all your cookies from all your sites and build a file on your personal info to target you later.
Bots are automated programs that can control your system. It installs itself then beacons a signal to home base/the bot controller, where he can control your complete machine like a remote controlled toy, doing as he pleases, when commanded to do something. This can happen to you and will at some point, if you do not learn to stop such attacks by NOT becoming INFECTED. You must find them and destroy them before you go back on-line and it calls home.
Web bugs are very small graphic files, usually 1 pixel by 1 pixel in size (hence the term "bug" or invisible) that can send messages to third parties about your Internet browsing habits. Third parties can use this information to create user profiles and can give you away by capturing the date and time the web bug was accessed, the browser version used and even your IP address when you received bug.
Rootkits are the most devious, hidden malware of them all. They hide in your system's processes, going undetected by common, state of the art scanners. You will need a dedicated program to search for this type of infection, which we provide on our lockdown page. In the most persistence cases, the only remedy is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system, along with your additional software programs. One of the more infamous Rootkits was the Sony/XCP that was discovered in late 2005.
Spam can do all of the things listed above, but comes to you by your in-box. Yes junk mail that is sitting in your in-box may infect you without you opening it, and it most certainly will if you do open it accidentally. Never click on anything and especially do not use their link to ‘remove you from their mailing list’ as it will get you bombarded with a whole lot more. It tells them you are active and reading junk mail and paints a bull's-eye on your e-mail address.
As you can tell from reading this, it is easy to find common elements with them all. For one, you do not want any of them on your machine. They are clever at hiding and will even bypass shredders and other advanced cleaning tools. As you learn about these threats, we will show you how to scrub your machine and perform Lockdown measures to secure the privacy and integrity of your machine.
Technology can be complicated if you do not understand the meaning of the words. We have an extensive word vault ready to help with the Technology Terms of today!
MALicious softWARE ™
Want to see some of the malware known by M.I.C.A.? Check out the Malware page and search our databank compiled for you to study.
Did you know that the word ‘Spyware’ has officially made it into the Oxford Dictionary. It has infected millions of machines and cost the country billions of dollars. We continue to let it spread at an incredible rate, ruining peoples lives and shutting down complete network systems on a daily bases.
Malware Research