Although it is true, viruses are one of the biggest and main battles facing the digital world today, as well as the hyperconnected society. Especially since according to computer experts, every second about three viruses are created on planet Earth and the consequences of its spread are truly unequal.
In this sense, are the cause of considerable inconvenience to Internet users and thus, are responsible for data theft, documentary destruction and other serious crimes within an online environment. Bearing in mind that they all operate in different ways and while some manage to slow down your computer to unbearable speeds, others only focus on making you lose information of interest or steal it from you.
For all this and much more, it is worth knowing What are the main types of computer attacks that exist today? and for this reason, below, we will detail the most common of these. Additionally, we provide you with information about the types of programs that you can use to defend yourself against these powerful threats.
What are the most common types of attacks and computer viruses?
In principle, we offer you a list with each and every one of the most recognized and common computer viruses and attacks today. This, in order for you to know the main threats that surround the digital world and thus, you can avoid them in a certain way.
Now, then we indicate the most relevant characteristics of the most common computer viruses:
Denial of service attacks (DoS and DDoS)
Without a doubt, this computer threat is one of the most feared, due to its economy of execution and, above all, because it is extremely difficult to trace the attacker. Which consist of making various requests to a server in order to make it collapse and especially, that it is blocked.
Thus, the so-called “”, can be defined as an attack on a computer system or network that causes or achieves that a certain service or resource is completely inaccessible by legitimate users. In that way, may cause loss of network connectivity for the consumption of the transfer of information or bandwidth of the victim’s network.
In addition to this, it should be noted that denial of service attacks are very effective and said effectiveness is due to the fact that they do not have to overcome the security measures that normally protect a server. Well, these do not try to penetrate inside but rather, block it and that’s it.
Among other things, although there are various techniques, the most common of all lies in the use of botnets or computers infected with Trojans and worms in which the user himself does not know that he is taking part in the attack.
Exploits
Basically, it is defined as an illegal or unethical attack that takes advantage of any vulnerability in networks, applications or hardware. So, they are estimated as errors in the software development process that represent security gaps that cybercriminals can use to access said software and with it, the entire team.
In such a way, this kind of attack, in general, materializes in software or code and with this, it has the purpose of gain control of a computer system and at the same time steal data stored on a network. Thus, users may not recognize this type of attack until it is too late. For this reason, it is recommended to always have the software updated.
It should be noted that, can be classified based on the type of vulnerability they affect. Whether it is zero-day, impersonation, denial of service, etc. Due to its vastness in the digital world, software vendors release security patches for all known weaknesses, and even with this, the program can remain at risk.
computer worm
It is a program that infects the computer and once it is completed, is in charge of making copies of itself and disseminating them through the network. In this way, it moves them to different locations on the computer with the full objective of collapsing computers and computer networks to prevent the work of all its users.
It is appropriate to highlight that, are a subclass of viruses, in reality; They are considered as a type of malware. Among its most relevant characteristics, we find that it does not require your intervention or a backup medium, unlike the virus. This, due to the fact that can be transmitted using networks or email.
In addition to this, the present class of computer attack it’s totally hard to spot, in view of the fact that they do not affect the normal operation of the system, in fact; since its purpose is to ensure the dissemination of the threat and with it, infect other computers.
trojan
Another of the most recognized computer attacks today are Trojans that are very similar to viruses. However, the latter are self-destructive and instead, he simply seeks to open a back door to manage to sponsor the entry of other malicious programs into the system and apart from that, they cannot multiply like computer viruses and worms do.
Usually a Trojan attack masquerades as legitimate software and with that, hackers and cybercriminals take advantage to steal your confidential data, carrying out actions such as: blocking, modifying, deleting or copying data; like an interruption in the performance of equipment and computer networks.
For their part, Trojan attacks are also known as “Trojan Horses” because its mission is similar to these, due to the fact that it goes unnoticed and thus, it manages to enter the systems without being detected as a real potential threat. Taking into account that they can even be added in harmless executable files, apparently.
malware
is a generic term that usually refers to any malicious softwareas it describes malicious codes that cause damage to systems.
Which, has as its main objective, to infiltrate a system to cause powerful destruction in it and thus, are considered intrusive and intentionally nasty threats that try to invade, deteriorate and even disable from equipment to computer systems, networks, mobile devices and tablets.
In this sense, in general, malware assumes partial control of the operations of a certain device and intervene in its normal functioning. With this, viruses are considered a type of malware, just like Trojans, computer worms and other attacks of this class.
Over time, it has been pointed out that the most relevant intention of malware is based on take money from the user in an illegal way. So, it does everything possible to steal, encrypt or erase your data to hijack basic computer functions and spy on your every move without permission. Although, these they do not have the power to damage the systems hardware.
Phishing
Certainly, it is not a malicious software but rather, of a social engineering technique which is used by cyber thieves to obtain as much confidential information as possible from users; such as: names, passwords and especially credit card details with just impersonate a legitimate and trustworthy organization.
On the other hand, the means most used by are email, messaging and phone calls. Which seems to come from legal and recognized companies such as PayPal, a bank, a government agency or any known entity. But all this is based on imitations to request your confidential information and then use it for their own benefit.
Thus, when you receive this attack from your email, they can ask you to update or validate information about your account; so that you are redirected to a fake website and that is where they easily obtain your data to provoke the usurpation of your identity. Therefore, although it cannot be eliminated, phishing can be easily detected by monitoring your website.
spoofing
Also translated as “impersonation”this type of digital threat refers to the use of identity theft techniques for malicious or investigative purposes, generally, using a fake IP address. Since, specifically, it is responsible for replacing the source IP address of a TCP/IP packet with another IP address that you want to replace.
In this way, this computer attack can be achieved thanks to programs designed for that purpose only. In this sense, the attacker from his team simulates the identity of another machine on the network to find access to resources from a third-party system that has established some trust. Said trust is based on the name or the IP address of the host that will be impersonated.
Among other details, their attack models can be classified depending on the technology they use. With this, everyone is included in the idea that any network technology is vulnerable to identity theft and the most recognized are: IP spoofing, email spoofing, DNS spoofing, Web spoofing, etc.
Spyware
It is defined as a spyware whose purpose is collect information about your equipment with complete peace of mind, in view of the fact that their work is usually completely silent and does not show signs of its operation in order to obtain said information quickly. Added to this, it is responsible for installing other programs without prior notice and also slows down operating systems and software execution.
Among its particularities of greatest interest, we find that it causes the slowness of operating systems and programs, due to the fact that tends to consume a lot of machine resources and of course, thus prevents the normal operation of it.
In addition to this, spyware has the unique feature of automatically placing windows to try to sell certain products and services; which are based on the information collected by these malicious programs.
In short, its specific objective is to capture and monitor the movements of computer equipment users and currently, it is evaluated that more than 80% of personal computers may be infected with spyware.
adware
This concept is used in the field of computing to refer to those and software that, automatically display advertisements to the user. In other words, its main function is to display advertising so that the manufacturer of the software in question can obtain profits from said advertisements.
Added to this, Apart from collecting users’ personal information, it also focuses on manage to record keystrokes And till track all the websites the person visits, thoroughly.
With which, they obtain more details about the user’s movements from their computer, to…
Facebook Comments
Disqus