Showing us how susceptible we have become, is the mystifying computer virus. It has a way of getting our attention. In fact, a virus can capture the attention of the entire internet. One simple little computer program can remind us of how unified we have all become. A correctly created virus can have a devastating effect on the global internet. Two other malicious types of malware are the worm and Trojan. Today, our small computer-like phones are targets of these intimidating menaces.
Some Viruses are Created to Steal
Lately, attention has been turning to smartphones, like the computer, there have been attacks on phones that can send your information to strangers, and run up expensive bills by sending messages to premium service numbers. These programs can affect your phone by scrutinizing your calls and texts. They can deceive you into entering your financial information. These can transfer to your personal computer when connecting your smartphone to your computer. Kaspersky also offers protection from viruses for your smartphone.
Email Virus can Mail Itself to Contacts
A computer virus is suitably named because it works like a human virus by attaching itself to another program. It then spreads to other computer programs, infecting them with the virus. Each time the infected program runs, so does the virus. This inflicts disaster on the computer. An example is the email virus. It can replicate itself and mail itself to countless contacts in your address book. Some emails can contain worms or Trojan horses.
Worms with Evil Intentions
One small software program that gets through the network by way of security holes can replicate itself over and over by scanning and discovering more security holes in a network. It then copies itself to the machine having the security hole and replicates from there. It eventually uses up all the memory of the computer to render it useless. This malicious software is called a worm and is a sub-class of a virus.
Worms normally have an evil intention. When a worm is loose, on the internet, it scans for servers that do not have security patches installed, when it finds one, it copies itself to that server and the new copy scans for other servers to infect. Worms can create thousands of copies and slow the Internet to a crawl because they use up network bandwidth. They can cause major disruptions by increasing network traffic.
Tricky Trojan Horses
Trojan horses are programs that can be downloaded to your computer when you innocently install a game that contains malicious code. When the game containing the Trojan horse is played on your computer, it does damage. Even though it cannot replicate itself, it can do such harm as to erase your hard drive on your computer. Trojans can sometimes sneak past your security firewalls by being tricky and appearing as normal software programs. Different from worms and viruses, Trojans do not self replicate and do not reproduce by infecting other files.
Virus Creators now Threaten Smartphones
Creators of viruses grew to be more sophisticated over the years; they learned to load viruses into memory so they ran in the background anytime the computer was on. This allowed viruses to quickly replicate themselves. Virus creators learned to infect the boot program of the operating system; this guaranteed the virus would get executed. These viruses were spread by floppy disks. These rapidly spreading viruses are still out there, but no longer a threat as they were back then. More security measures exist today. However, now threats have turned to the smartphones.
Today, smartphones are more like small personal computers than a phone. The virus producers of yesterday have started using their attacks on smartphones. In addition to protecting the personal computer from viruses, Kaspersky, which is a primary developer of protected content and threat management solutions, has a new version of mobile security that provides premium protection for smartphones.
The mystifying computer virus can slow down the entire internet. It reminds us of how connected we have all become. A virus can have an overwhelming effect on the worldwide internet. Even our phones are targets of viruses. Kaspersky ONE Universal Security can protect all of your devices from these powerful, mystifying viruses. Just one license can protect your computers from harmful viruses, worms and trojans.