Most commonly in our business we see and repair computers that are infected with a variety of Trojans, worms, viruses, spyware etc. As a matter of fact in the month of September 73% of our clients brought in their computers with symptoms ranging from not being able to connect to the internet, to computers not booting up, all of which were a direct result of the computer being compromised by some type of malicious software aka malware. There are several different types of malware that can attack your computer for a variety of purposes, which most commonly are broken down into the following categories:
Virus is software program, which will attach itself to a program file, then replicates, and infects other programs on the computer. Most commonly, viruses are spread from computer to computer through email attachments, and are activated when the attached file is downloaded to the computer. Viruses can lead to annoying popups on the screen or can be as damaging as destroying programs.
Worms are occasionally confused with viruses since they too will infect a program and start replicating to other programs, however they are by far more damaging because they actively seek and infect other programs on the same computer or across a network of computers.
Trojans mask themselves to look like legitimate programs, when in reality they are malware and perform some other activity when executed. Trojans unlike viruses do not replicate and infect other files, however they are just as damaging if they remain on the computer by destroying data or allowing a third party to have access to your computer.
Common, and annoying, examples of these infections are spyware and adware, which essentially define what the malware’s function is once it has infected your computer. Typically, spyware collects information from the computer it has infected, for example which online shopping sites are frequently visited, and sends it back to its host computer. Adware, in general is the root of the annoying popups that are primarily trying to sell a good or service, and may even be part of a larger spyware infestation aimed at stealing your credit card information.