What is malware?

Malware definition

The general term “malware,” or “malicious software,” is any damaging program or code for systems.

Often by partially controlling the activities of a device, hostile, invasive, and purposefully nasty malware aims to attack, damage, or disable computers, computer systems, networks, tablets, and mobile devices. It disrupts regular functioning, just as human illness does.

The reasons behind malware vary as well. Malware might be about generating money off of you, compromising your capacity to get tasks done, political statement making, or just boasting rights. With one exception malware can steal, encrypt, or delete your information, modify or hijack basic computer functions, and spy on your computer activity without your knowledge or permission. It cannot damage the actual hardware of systems or network equipment.

How can I tell if I have a malware infection?

Malware can manifest itself with numerous unusual actions. These are a few obvious indicators your system may have malware:

1. Your computer gets slower. Whether you are surfing the Internet or merely running local programs, one of the negative effects of malware is to slow down your operating system (OS), hence consumption of system resources seems somewhat unusual. One good sign that something is consuming system resources in the background is the fan spinning away at full power on your computer. This usually results from your computer being ensnared into a botnet—that is, a network of enslaved machines used for DDoS attacks, blast out spam, or mine bitcoin.
2. There is obnoxious advertising all over your screen. Usually indicating a malware infection are unexpected pop-up advertising. They particularly relate to a type of malware sometimes referred to as adware. More importantly, pop-ups often come accompanied by other latent virus dangers. Therefore, avoid clicking on a pop-up displaying something like “ConGRatulations, You’ve won a free psychological reading!”  Whatever free prize the advertisement guarantees, you will pay enough.
3. Your system quakes. This might show as a freeze or a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), the latter which happens on Windows computers following a fatal error.
4. You find an inexplicable disk space loss. This could result from a massive malware squatter buried in your hard drive, sometimes known as bundleware.
5. The Internet activity of your system seems strange. Consider trojans. Once a Trojan settles on a target machine, it reaches out to the attacker’s command and control server (C&C) to download a secondary infection—often ransomware. This helps to explain the Internet activity surge. The same applies for botnets, spyware, and any other threat needing back and forth interaction with the C&C servers.
6. Your browser’s settings have changed. You may have some kind of malware infection if you find your homepage altered or if you have new plugins, toolbars, or extensions installed. Though the causes differ, this usually means you clicked on the “congratulations” pop-up, downloading some unwelcome program.
7. Your antivirus program shuts down and cannot be turned back on, therefore exposing you to the sly spyware that disabled it.
8. You lose your whole computer or access to your files. This points to a ransomware virus. Either placing a ransom note on your desktop or altering your desktop wallpaper itself into a ransom note, the hackers identify themselves (see GandCrab). Usually in the note, the offenders tell you your data has been encrypted and demand a ransom in return for file decryption.

Don’t get lazy even if everything on your system looks to be running perfectly since no news is not always positive. Strong malware can lurk deep in your machine, undetectable, and carry on its filthy work without drawing attention. Although we have a brief malware spotter’s guide, a solid cybersecurity program’s constant eye is what detects malware on your machine (more on that later).

How can I get malware?

Email and the Internet are the two most often used paths by malware onto your machine. Basically, then, you are susceptible anytime you are connected online.

When (deep breath now) you surf hacked websites, view a legitimate site serving malicious ads, download infected files, install programs or apps from unfamiliar provide, open a malicious email attachment (malspam), or basically almost everything else you download from the web on to a device lacking a quality anti-malware security application.

Particularly when they are downloaded from websites or direct links—in an email, text, or chat message—instead of an official app store—malicious apps can hide in apparently legal programs. When installing programs, especially if they ask to access your email or other personal data, it’s crucial to review the warning messages.

Various types of malware

These are the most often occurring offenders in the rogues’ gallery of malware:

Usually found in a computer browser, adware is unwelcome software meant to blast commercials on your screen. Usually, it employs an underhanded approach to either hide itself as legitimate, or piggyback on another program to fool you into downloading it on your PC, tablet, or smartphone.

1. Spyware is malware designed to covertly monitor computer user behavior without authorization and notify the author of the program.
2. Usually unintentionally run by the user, a virus is malware that hooks itself to another program and multiplies itself by altering other computer programs and arming them with its own bits of code.
3. One sort of malware akin to viruses are worms. Worms, like viruses, are self-replicating. The main distinction is that whereas viruses require some kind of user input to start the infection, worms can proliferate across systems on their own.
4. Among the most hazardous malware varieties are Trojan, sometimes known as Trojan horse. Usually speaking, it presents itself as something helpful meant to fool you. Once it’s on your system, the attackers behind the Trojan get illegal access to the compromised machine. From there, Trojans can be exploited for financial data theft or installation of various types of malware, most usually ransomware.
5. Ransomware is a type of software that locks you off of your device or encrypts your files, then makes you pay a ransom to have access once more. Since ransomware requires a speedy, profitable payment in hard-to-track cryptocurrencies, it has been dubbed the weapon of choice for cybercriminals. Online criminal markets provide simple access to the code behind ransomware, and protecting against it is somewhat challenging. While ransomware attacks on personal consumers are down right now, assaults on companies are up 365 percent for 2019. For instance, the Ryuk ransomware especially targets well-known companies more likely to pay big ransoms.
6. Also referred to as “root” access, rootkit is a type of malware giving the assailant administrator rights on the compromised machine. Usually, it also keeps hidden from the user, other programs on the system, and the operating system itself.
7.  Usually storing the acquired data and forwarding it to the attacker, who is looking for sensitive information like usernames, passwords, or credit card data, a keylogger is malware that records all the user’s inputs on the keyboard.
8. Usually driven by a Trojan, malicious crypto mining also known as drive-by mining or cryptojacking is a somewhat common malware. It lets someone else mine Bitcoin or Monero using your computer. Therefore, the cryptominers transmit the gathered money into their own account instead of allowing you to cash in on the horsepower of your own computer and not theirs. A malicious crypto miner is essentially pilfering your assets for profit.
9. Exploits are a kind of malware that uses system vulnerabilities and flaws to provide the attacker access to your machine. The assailant may drop some type of malware or pilfer your info while there. A zero-day exploit is a software flaw for which a fix or defense is not yet known.

History of malware

A whole history of malware would be too extensive to list given the variety of forms and the daily mass of variants unleashed into the wild. Having said that, a look at malware trends over previous years is more under control. The following are the primary developments in malware evolution.

Theoretically, “self-reproducing automaton” (that is, viruses) originated in a 1949 lecture given by Renaissance man John von Neumann of the 20th century. Still, the history of modern viruses starts with a program known as Elk Cloner, which began attacking Apple II systems in 1982.

Originally benign, the virus propagated to all disks connected to a system and exploded so powerfully that it can be regarded as the first major computer virus epidemic in history. Infected floppy disks helped to disseminate the virus. Remember, this came before any Windows PC virus. Since then, worms and viruses have proliferated really extensively.

Not to be surpassed until Google’s Android many years later, Microsoft Windows started its lengthy run as the most often used OS in the world in the 1990s. The number of viruses created for the Windows OS and its built-in apps increased in tandem with their popularity. Specifically, writers of malware began to create contagious code in Microsoft Word’s macro language. Though technically the Word document macros are a type of executable code, these macro viruses infected documents and templates instead of executable software.

2002 to 2007: Instant messaging (IM) worms proliferated on well-known IM networks including Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and AOL AIM. Most strikes began with a social engineering scheme. Attackers may use an IM sounding something like “Who’s with you in this picture?” I believe you won the lotto, or “OMG! including a link pointing to a dangerous download. Once your PC became compromised, the IM worm would spread itself by forwarding dangerous download links to every member of your contact list.

2005 to 2009: Adware attacks exploded, showing unwelcome ads on computer screens, occasionally via a pop-up or in a window users could not close. These adverts frequently used legal software as a distribution tool, but around 2008 software publishers started prosecuting adware vendors for fraud. Millions of dollars in fines out of this. This finally caused adware companies to close. Drawing considerably on the adware of yesteryear, today’s tech support scams use many of the same techniques as previous adware attacks; e.g., full screen adverts that cannot be closed or exited.

2007 to 2009: Malware scammers moved to social networks like Myspace as a conduit for transmitting rogue ads, links to phishing pages, and dangerous programs. Facebook and Twitter emerged as the favored sites as Myspace lost appeal.

2013: Targeting computers running Windows, a new type of malware known as ransomware began an attack under the name CryptoLocker and persisted from early September 2013 until late May 2014. According to BBC News, CryptoLocker was successful in making victims pay roughly $3 million in all. Moreover, the popularity of the ransomware spawned an endless number of copycats.

2013 to 2017: Rising through Trojans, exploits, and malvertising, ransomware became the king of malware, sparking massive 2017 outbreaks impacting companies of all stripes.

2017: Cryptocurrency—and how to mine for it—has drawn a lot of attention and resulted in a new malware scam known as cryptojacking, or the covert use of someone else’s device to surreptitiously mine for cryptocurrencies using victim resources.

2018 to 2019: Ransomware returned in significant numbers. Cybercriminals now, however, turned their attention from personal consumers to corporate targets. Riding a wave of GandCrab and Ryuk ransomware infestations, business attacks increased 365 percent from 2018 to 2019. There is no sign, as of right now, the ransomware attacks will slow down.

Do Macs get malware?

Sometimes conventional belief holds that Macs and iPads are virus-free and that they do not require an antivirus. That is essentially true for most of us. It hasn’t happened in a very long time at least.

 “Mac systems cannot be considered bulletproof; they are vulnerable (as Windows machines are) and experience the same subsequent symptoms of infection.”

Other types of malware tell another entirely. Mac computers cannot be regarded as bulletproof; they are prone to the same vulnerabilities (and consequent symptoms of infection) as Windows PCs. For example, the Mac’s built-in malware security does not stop all of the adware and spyware included with bogus application downloads. More dangerous are trojans and keyloggers. March 2016 saw the first ransomware discovery for Macs after a Trojan-delivered attack compromised almost 7,000 Mac users.

Is malware present on mobile devices?

Mobile market is loved by malware offenders. Smartphones are, after all, sophisticated, multifarious portable computers. For those looking to turn a dishonest dollar, they also provide access to a wealth of personal data, financial records, and all kinds of priceless information.

Sadly, this has led to an increasingly growing number of hostile attempts leveraging smartphone weaknesses. From adware, Trojans, spyware, worms, and ransomware, malware can enter your phone in several ways. Some obvious offenders are clicking on a bad link or downloading an untrustworthy app, but emails, SMS, and even your Bluetooth connection can cause infection. Furthermore, spyware like worms can move from one compromised phone to another without user intervention.

Actually, the market is really large (read: target). Representing mobile carriers, the GSMA, a trade association, estimates global mobile device usage to be some sort of over 5 billion. One quarter of these consumers have multiple devices. Finding the mobile market highly appealing, fraudsters use a massive economies of scale to maximize their efforts.

Often even easier to target are mobile consumers. Most fail to install security software or maintain their operating systems current, thereby not protecting their phones as carefully as they do their laptops. We share some responsibility but not fully. Apple supports their phones on average, which indicates you can download the most recent iOS five years from the release date. An Android phone can be upgraded roughly three years apart.

Compared to a PC, infected mobile devices are especially a sneaky threat. Ironically, the “personal computer” loses its personal character nowadays. Conversely, we always carry phones with us. Our society has grown so hooked to our phones that there is now a real word for the anxiety we get without them: nomophobia.

All you see and say can be recorded on a hacked microphone and camera. Your every movement may be broadcast from a hacked GPS. Worse still, many apps rely on mobile malware to avoid the multi-factor authentication (MFA), thereby safeguarding our data.

 “The more popular Android platform draws more malware than the iPhone.”

With 76% of all smartphone sales, Google’s Android dominates the market among the two most often used smartphone operating systems in the mobile malware ecosystem; followed by iOS with 22% of all smartphones sold. Not surprisingly then, the more popular Android platform draws more malware than the iPhone. Let us examine them individually now.

How can I find out whether malware exists on my Android phone?

Your Android phone clearly exhibits a few obvious infections. Having said that, if you come across any of the following you could be infected.

1. Pop-ups with intrusive ads suddenly showing up. You most certainly installed something that hides adware if they show up out of nowhere and link you to dubious websites. Said another way, avoid clicking on these adverts.
2. An unexplained rise in data consumption. By showing advertising and distributing the stolen information from your phone, malware burns up your data plan.
3. Bogus charges show on your bill. This occurs when rogue programs call and SMS premium numbers.
4. Your battery quickly runs out. A resource load, malware consumes the power in your battery faster than usual.
5. From your phone, your contacts get weird texts and emails. Usually starting from one device, mobile virus travels from one to another via texts and emails including dangerous links.
6. Your phone is heated. Usually speaking, a phone indicates that a lot of resource-intensive activities are on the CPU. Virulence of malware  Potentially. The Loapi Trojan can drive the CPU to the point of overheating the phone, causing the battery to bulge and rendering your phone dead.
7. Apps you did not download. Occasionally you download apparently trustworthy apps with viruses buried in the code. This spyware downloads other dangerous programs in turn. While sticking to reputable programs from reputable sources is important, even the Google Play store itself hosts hundreds of dangerous apps that slip through the year.
8. Wi-Fi and Internet connections start automatically. Ignoring your preferences and creating infection routes, this is yet another method malware spreads.

How would I find out whether malware exists on my iPad or iPhone?

 Good news, people who love Apple. On an iPhone, malware is not a major concern. Not to say it doesn’t exist, but it’s quite rare. Actually, having a malware infection on an iPhone usually only occurs under three rare conditions.

 “While outright malware infections are unlikely, using an iPhone doesn’t protect you at all against robocalls or text message scams.”

1. A nation-state-level adversary’s focused onslaught. In this instance, a government has either developed or bought, at millions of dollars, a piece of malware designed to exploit some hidden security hole in iOS. Not surprised; every gadget has some kind of weakness.

Apple has done a great job of protecting iOS, including stopping any apps—including security software—from scanning the phone or other apps on the system. Known as the walled garden, this method explains why there are so few instances of iOS malware—creating it is simply too costly, complicated, and time consuming for most hackers.

One especially notable incident occurred in 2016 when a globally known human rights lawyer, stationed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), got SMS text messages on his iPhone promising “new secrets” about captives mistreated in UAE jails. The intended receiver was invited to click on a linked included item. Rather, he forwarded the information to cybersecurity experts, who found it to include an exploit likely to transform the activist’s phone into a digital spy. Since then, the zero-day weaknesses utilized in this attack have been fixed.

2. A strike on a broken iPhone prison. Mostly to enable the installation of programs from outside Apple’s App Store, jailbreaking an iPhone removes the limitations and restrictions Apple imposes as part of their walled garden approach to software creation. Apple thoroughly checks the software creators it carries, even yet a virus has crept into a respectable app.

3. An attack on an antiquated iPhone. Apple fans’ minds blew on August 29, 2019: malware started infecting regular, non-jailbroken iPhones using a sequence of iOS exploits. Victims landing on a compromised website set off the onslaught.

 From there, utilizing a variety of exploits to obtain root access, the malevolent websites attacked devices with malware. Attackers can view your stored passwords, SMS, call history, images, contacts, notes and recordings once the infection gets underway. They even follow your GPS position. Though the sites that caused the infection are unknown today, the exploits have been fixed and it is rather unlikely you will receive this infection. Having said that, you can be vulnerable if you never reset your phone and have an outdated phone—that is, older than iOS 12.1.4.

Regarding Android and iOS dangers, one more point. Two other cyberthreats that compromise iOS and Android users are phishing attacks and scam calls. Regarding phishing, if you click a link in a message from an unidentified source or someone you know who is being spoofed, you could be sent to a website created to look like a reputable one requesting your login and other personal information. Basically, always treat everything with care.

About scam calls, which are the evil of our modern life calls from numbers you know, occasionally in your own area code, with threatening pre-recorded messages claiming to be from different government organizations. Unless it is from a political candidate, airline, charity, healthcare provider, school, or debt collector whomever the caller purports to be is most likely unlawful.

Who is the target of malware?

The response here is: Choose at will. Out there are billions of consumer-owned gadgets. They link to banks, retail store accounts, and everything else worth pilfering. Keyloggers, malvertising, adware and spyware, and a wide attack surface enabling lazy criminals to write and spread malware to as many targets as possible, with comparably little work, all fit here.

“If you use your smartphone or tablet in the workplace, hackers can turn their attack to your employer.”

Although not very common among cybercriminals right now, cryptominers seem to have equal opportunity regarding their targets, attacking both people and companies. Conversely, ransomware attacks companies, hospitals, governments, and retail stores systems in disproportionately higher numbers than consumers.

Mobile spyware criminals also target not just consumers. If you use a tablet or smartphone at work, vulnerabilities in mobile devices allow hackers to target your company. Furthermore, your company’s incident response staff might not find breaches starting with the use of work email on a mobile device.

To reiterate, not all of the programs on Apple’s App Store and Google Play are desirable; the issue is far more pronounced with outside app stores. Some eventually find their way through even as the proprietors of the app stores strive to stop harmful programs from getting on their site. These apps can try to extort money from users, pilfers user information, tries to access business networks to which the device is linked, and orders users to watch unwelcome adverts or participate in other kinds of unclean activities.

How might one eliminate malware?

 Use these three simple procedures to get spyware off your gadget.

1. Get and set up a decent security program.

2. Using your new application, run a scan.

3. Change every one of your passwords. You must update your passwords for your email, social media accounts, preferred shopping sites, PC or mobile device, and online banking and billing centers now that you know some type of spyware is not monitoring you.

Although this sounds paranoid, with spyware, banking Trojans and the like, you just never know exactly what data was gathered prior to stopping the infection. As usual, apply some kind of multi-factor authentication (at least two-factor) and avoid believing you have to commit all your passwords to memory. Use a password manager instead.

How might one guard against malware?

Here’s our advice on malware protection not in any certain sequence.

1. Pay close attention to the domain and use caution if the site isn’t a top-level domain—that is, com, mil, net, org, edu, or biz, for a few.

2. Establish multi-factor authentication using secure passwords. Here a password manager might be quite helpful.

3. Steer clear of clicking on Internet pop-up advertising.

4. Steer clear of opening emails from unidentified sources.

5. Never click on odd, dubious links seen in emails, books, and social media correspondence.

6. Download software from peer-to-peer file transfer networks or unreliable websites not advised here.

7. Stay with official Android, OSX, iOS apps from Google Play and Apple’s App Store; avoid jailbreaking your phone. Before installing any program, PC users should evaluate ratings and comments.

8. Patch and update your operating system, browsers, and plugins to be current.

9. Rid any programs you no longer utilize.

10. Regularly back up your data. You will be covered if your files get corrupted, encrypted, or otherwise inaccessible.

11. Get and set up a cybersecurity program on your device to constantly monitor and prohibit risks from accessing it. For Windows, Mac, Android, and Chromebook.