Different terms like virus or malware or Trojans etc. are used interchangeably in layman’s terms. But all are of a different nature and behave (or misbehave!!) differently on your computer systems. Here is a brief description about their nature which might help you in knowing them better.
Malware: - A malware is a very wide term and includes virus besides various other worms. It means any malicious code (be it a virus or other worm or Trojan etc.) which does any one or more of the below
- Harms the computer or any of its programs
- Acts against the wishes of computer user.
- Clogs the system or networks.
- Steals data or works negatively in the background.
- Scares the user for any frivolous or fraudulent action.
- Spy the activity of user.
- Annoy the user with some undesired activity like advertising.
Virus: - A virus is a narrow term and is covered as one of the categories of the malware. It means anything which attaches itself to any executable file in order to multiply itself or to harm the computer or network or data etc. It does not get activated of its own and generally requires some external human action to get activated and then harm the computer or data. The user of computer is generally required to click that executable file to spread the infection. Like any human virus which remain in a state of inactivity for long but whenever it comes across a living organism it gets life of its own. Similarly, virus just remain in sleep state but the human intervention (unintentional though) like people sharing infected files, emails or images or batch programs and then someone clicking them breads a fresh life in them.
Analogy: – Enemy who is quiet and wait for prey to attack and then multiply.
CATEGORIES OF MALWARES
Malware can broadly be divided into below categories
a) Virus: - As mentioned above
b) Worms: – A worm is an advanced form of Virus which multiplies of its own and exploits the transportation vulnerabilities of computer systems and networks to travel through and does not require any human action to spread itself. They replicate themselves and often in large quantities and start using the network and disk space and clog the computer or network system. For example they can travel to others email by using the address book in outlook or storage device or networks. Within very short period of time they can travel through various computers and can cause lot of damage and harm.
Analogy: -A strong leader who creates his carbon copy disciples at a rapid pace.
c) Trojans: - A Trojan is a seemingly useful program which does useful things apparently on the face of it. But in the background does the negative things for unaware user. They visibly look like useful programs but at the background may steal data or infect the computer.
Analogy: – A traitor who show his useful docile nature but stabs at the back.
d) Scareware: - Often when you click on a pop up comes which shows that your computer is at risk and is infected with various viruses. It asks you to pay for an antivirus so that such infections can be cleaned. Such pop are generally a way to extract some money from the user and does not actually provide any antivirus. They scare the users hence are generally known as scare wares. But they can also store the credit card information provided by user for payment for fraudulent use later. At times they are very painful because they don’t let any other exe file run into the system and start giving virus warnings whenever user try to start any program. They usually don’t harm the data of the user but may make computer unusable unless they are removed.
Analogy – A barking dog on door requiring bone and does not allow to enter inside.
e) Ad ware: - These are the programs which keep on showing you undesirable ads against your wishes at regular intervals. They may not harm the computer but generally provide very irritating and painful experience with constantly popping ads.
Analogy – A person looking for attention but bringing up unnecessary issues.
f) Rootkit: – These are the programs which are able to take the administrative control of your computer to provide control to the perpetrator to do anything with it. They hit the brain of the computer to control everything other part of it.
Analogy – A hypnotist who cast you under his spell to get you do anything for him.
g) Spyware: – A spyware is a program which hides under your computer system and keep on passing the important and confidential information like credit cards etc. to remote perpetrator. This can compromise the important data of user which can be intended to be used for fraudulent purpose
Analogy – A spy hidden inside to pass your important secrets to preying eyes.
h) Key logger: – A key logger is a software which keeps a track of keys pressed by your keyboard. This can help in tracing the bank accounts or other credit card information when you type them. Again it can be very dangerous to you as your most important information can be compromised.
Analogy – A detective who keep an eye on you to get important info about you.