When we take over the best information about types of computer viruses that exist, that no one should doubt, are always a latent threat to our equipment, we will be able to protect each of the devices we use in the best possible way.
Companies and corporations of different levels can attest to this, which sometimes have a department dedicated to face the threat to suffer an attack from any . But this is not the case for the majority of users, who can also be victims of an attack that would cause them to lose data, and sometimes even completely damage their equipment.
In this sense, in our desire to be proactive and disseminate the greatest amount of information on the subject, we have decided to make this content available to you, with the assurance that it will give you insights to the full understanding of something so delicate.
What is a computer virus and what are the risks of having one on our computer?
We are talking about software developed in order to negatively affect the normal operation of the operating system of any computer device. Sometimes it can come as a piece of code that resides in a file, designed for the same malicious purpose as a complete program of the same malware.
As you well know, there are different types and classes of malware, but when we talk about computer viruses we must make it clear that the term is closely related to its ability to self replicatethus gaining the ability to spread from one computer to another as any virus would in humans.
One of these malicious programs can reach your device in different ways, such as email, audio or video files, photos and any other attachment that we share on social networks, insert infected USBs. It can remain dormant until some circumstance causes the program to activate, infecting everything connected to the same computer network.
Although sometimes computer viruses do not go beyond causing some inconvenience, which makes them somewhat harmless, other times have catastrophic effects and devastating for victim teams. Among these last risks we can mention the following:
- Theft of passwords and other data
- Redirect your email contacts
- Trigger keystrokes
- noticeably decrease the performance of the computer
- Partially or totally damage one or more files
- Take control of your team
These are all things that can happen to your device once you install an infected program on it, which often happens without you realizing it. Once that happens, the malicious software It stays in the regardless of whether you have not done the full download.
List of major known viruses in modern computing
Below you will see a list with the main computer viruses, that have become real challenges for security experts in the area in recent times:
trojan
It is one of the most feared computer viruses, due to its ability to disguise itself and try to enter users’ systems. It often comes in the guise of legitimate software.. Once it is installed and activated on your system, it allows cybercriminals to carry out malicious actions against all kinds of data, stealing, deleting or changing the same.
worms
It is the classic way of referring to computer viruses, and its description corresponds to the one we have given you in the previous chapter. However, we will take the opportunity to indicate that they are also capable of exploit mistakes in your favor in the computer network settings.
Likewise, they have the ability to use various methods to spread, such as knowing exploit security loopholes in the operating system and some applications.
joke
Although it is not actually a computer virus in the malicious sense of the term, this type of program is capable of cause some discomfort users by playing some seemingly harmless pranks on them. But harmless or not, we can never be sure what the reaction of someone who sees their computer suddenly start to crash might be. shake for no apparent reasonor move the cursor on its own every few seconds.
Time bomb
Also known as a logic bomb, it is a virus that has been programmed by its developer to activate at a certain time. Although it is not capable of spreading by its own means, there is evidence of how harmful it is by causing the partial or total loss of the security systems in the devices, as well as a notable drop in their performance.
recycler
This malware is more common today than many of us would like, all aggravated by its great ability to go undetected when it is received on computers. Among its most unwanted effects highlights the fact that we infect ourselves even more every time we try to enter a folder.
Given the great frequency with which we use accessories that depend on a usb connectionBe it flash drives, portable hard drives, smartphones or camera cards, we run the risk of infecting our devices with this dangerous computer virus.
List of computer viruses according to their main characteristics
In the same way, or in other words, with the same speed with which more and more innovations appear in the field of Information Technology, cybercrime also manages to create increasingly sophisticated malicious developments. So that you know some of them, we have prepared a list in which we describe the main characteristics and malicious capabilities of each one:
residents
They are those that can be hidden in the RAM of a computer and are able to reinstate each time you turn on or restart your computer. This is how they have become a great threat to programs and files, since they always find a way to affect them in some way. parts or the whole of the operating system.
polymorphic
It is a variety of malware designed to avoid detection by software . To achieve this, the pirates have taken care of creating a program capable of automatically making copies of itself with different encryption methods. With this technique, which is based on a system of chains, they make it difficult to detect by lowering the effectiveness of the tools against malware of this particular type.
zombie
They are malicious programs that allow hackers control your terminal remotely. They do so with the intention of creating a swarm of computers in a ‘zombie state’, which they use to flood any target site with spam. . Your device will be affected in various ways, such as when the fan starts running at full speed even when the computer is not turned on, emails in the outbox that you did not send, and a drop in the performance of the computer, among others.
keylogger
Hackers use this type of virus called with the intention of registering each keystroke of infected devices. In this way, they can get hold of sensitive user information, especially passwords and bank account details.
Motivated that they are designed to stay hidden, millions of users who have been infected with this virus hardly even notice it. But if you see that on your screen things are not reflected as you have been writing themor delays in mouse clicks, it is most likely that your computer has been a victim of this type of virus.
fat
This is malicious software that acts directly on the section of the hard drive that is intended to store information about the location of files. There have been cases of loss of entire directories with important information for the user. And incidentally, it can affect key aspects for the normal operation of the equipment, which can sometimes be completely inoperative.
hijacker
Maliciously devised for the purpose of domain hijacking, the Hijacker virus (learn more about other types of viruses) works by redirecting DNS servers. What they are looking for with this is to make every time you want to go to a particular domain, it sends you to an IP address that is not the one you are looking for, and therefore a page different from this one will be loaded.
In this way, the pirates get you to browse pages full of junk advertising that they control, and in which you will be an easy target to get infected with other types of malware.
ciphers
It is a family of computer viruses that are capable of encrypting and decrypting themselves. They do this with the intention of avoiding being detected by antiviruses. It has been discovered that when a virus of this type is about to go into action, it automatically decrypts itself using the password it used to encrypt itself, which is always the same.
The latter has allowed progress towards its elimination, and the consequent data recovery and files by affected users.
link or directory
This malicious software gets its name from its ability to change direction where a certain file is located. This means that its first harmful action within the system is to cause the virus to refer you to one that hosts the malicious program, instead of reaching the file you select.
Once that happens, it is impossible to work with the original file again. But the damage is not limited to damaging the first file only, since after doing it with this one it will link with the rest of the address directories that are on the hard disk, with which the magnitude of the damage will be total.
Boot or boot
In this case we are talking about a program designed to cause damage to the boot sector of the hard drive. This virus works by substituting the original startup code of the computer. To achieve this, the virus writes its code instead of the device’s MBR code, thereby gaining control of the device’s boot system. Many times the damage produced by a evil bootkit with physical problems in the boot system.
direct acting
They are so called because they are not capable of hibernating within the system before activating. This means that they come into action only when entering the equipment They do not have proper protection. Of course, once they are activated they look for the files located inside within the same directory where they have fallen to attack them.
overwrite
These specialize in delete the information contained in infected files. That makes them especially scary. Although sometimes the damage is only partial, when you try to recover the damage caused, what is achieved is the opposite effect. This makes it necessary to delete the file completely.With everything it implies.
What are the main methods of protection against all computer viruses?
What you have read up to this point may cause you some degree of alarm. But, for your peace of mind, we must…
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