Consumers were also hit as Zeus stole their online credentials and banking information.īut Trojans can be stopped. Zeus was one of the most harmful Trojans, compromising accounts for such organizations as Bank of America, NASA, Amazon, and ABC, stealing more than $70 million. In business networks and the internet, they can create DoS attacks, making the network or specific website unavailable. Named after a very dangerous wooden horse from Greek mythology, Trojan Horses hide a harmful code inside a harmless-looking file to create backdoors that allow attackers unauthorized access to share your financial information, passwords and other sensitive materials with criminals. And only open links that you are sure of, even when you know the sender. The virus incapacitated computers around the world, including government agencies, such as the Pentagon and the British Parliament, causing an estimated $10 billion in damages.Īs with viruses, the best way to prevent worm infections is with the use of antivirus or anti-malware software. The email was enticing with the subject reading, “A Love Letter from Your Secret Admirer” and an attachment. Not so loving was the ILOVEYOU worm which attacked tens of millions of PCs, overwriting random files and sending itself to other users through contact lists. Worms cause the most damage by slowing down the PC to the point that it stops working, or flooding networks, causing Denial of Service (DoS) or overloading the network and causing it to be inoperable or shut down. Instead of infecting programs, worms like to clone themselves to the point that they spread throughout a system and then the network. Instead call the person who sent it and ask if it’s indeed “Important.” Worms Plus, don’t click on any link that is sent to you that you aren’t expecting. Though it did not carry a malicious payload, Melissa did place a heavy burden on email servers, causing more than $80 million in damage worldwide.Įvery internet-connected system should have antivirus software installed, and users should keep the antivirus protection up-to-date. Once inside, it spread by sending itself to the top 50 contacts in the user’s Outlook contact list. Melissa appeared as an email with the subject “Important Message” carrying an attachment, that when opened, took over Word and Outlook. One of the most famous viruses was named Melissa. Once the program is run, the virus can go about stealing passwords or data, logging keystrokes, corrupting files, or even taking over the machine. And like the flu, it’s most often spread through sharing, in this case software or files between computers. Like a virus in the human body that attaches itself to cells and replicates, a computer virus attaches to software, reproducing when the software is run. Let’s take a look at the most prevalent kinds of threats and how to protect yourself from being the victim of an attack. This will make it more profitable than the global illegal drugs market. Researchers forecast a rise in cybercrime from $3 trillion in 2015 to $6 trillion by 2021. But as the name implies, malware has a truly malicious dark side that has made cyber crime a very profitable business for hackers. Some malware, like adware, is considered pretty harmless with the worst part being annoying pop-ups. Short for malicious software, malware comes in a variety of types, categories, and threat levels.
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