Differences between viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and malware

Your computer can be affected in many different ways with malicious software. There are several ways for them to enter your computer and different ways to defend yourself against these attacks. Among the different current threats we have:

Malware

The meaning of malware is a mix of malicious and software. Malware is a broader concept of malicious programs. These execute commands for different purposes, such as invading a computer or system, causing damage, deleting information, stealing service passwords, and much more.

In most cases, a common user of a computer does not realize that it is infected. Furthermore, a user calls all these infections as “viruses”, this being an incorrect name.

Malwares are subdivided into other categories, and will most likely continue to evolve as criminals discover and invent new methods of attacking computers. These categories include worms, viruses, Trojans, rootkits, spyware and adware, among others. Let's see what each one is and what each one does.

Virus

A virus is a malicious program that infects the system, making copies of itself and trying to spread to other computers, through email, social networks, input devices, or over the network, through which the computer is connected.

The goal of a virus is to impair the performance of a machine, destroy files, or spread to other computers. Thus, a computer can be highly vulnerable for malicious people to steal data such as personal files, passwords and credit card numbers, for example.

In most of the times, the antivirus is unable to detect 100% of the threats that reach your computer. Sometimes false positive detections also occur, which can suppress programs that are safe for you, but are threats for the antivirus. To guarantee the protection of your equipment it is essential to do preventive maintenance work.

Most infections are caused by the action of the user running the received infected file as an attachment to an e-mail.

Contamination can also occur through infected files on a flash drive (USB) or CD / DVD. Another form of contamination is through an outdated operating system, which without security fixes (to correct known vulnerabilities in operating systems or applications), could unknowingly cause the virus to receive and run.

There are also some types of viruses that are hidden at specific times, running later at scheduled times. Those who develop such viruses are people with great knowledge of programming and the operating system of computers.

On the internet there is a large virus trade, mainly those that serve to steal passwords and credit cards. Until a few years ago, most viruses were only spread through file sharing on a floppy disk. Who doesn't remember them? However, with the popularization of the internet, new forms of infection and viruses emerged, such as through e-mail, through instant messaging and through infected html pages.

User protection basically consists of not accessing files sent by unknown or suspicious files and always keeping a good antivirus updated.

Worms

The worms have as a differential the auto propagation without the need of another program as it happens with the viruses. The main means of entry for this threat is via the internet and it has already been the cause of great impact of slowness on the web when some of these were not recognized by defense tools.

While a virus infects a program and needs this program to spread, the worm is a complete program and does not need another to spread.

A worm can be designed to take malicious action after it has plagued a system. In addition to auto-replicating, it can delete files on a system or send documents by email.

From this, the worm can make the infected computer vulnerable to other attacks and cause damage only with the network traffic generated by its reproduction.

The Mydoom worm, for example, caused a widespread slowdown on the internet at the peak of its attack. To protect yourself from this threat, you must be careful when browsing the Internet, as well as access files sent by acquaintances through e-mail and not download them, as they may be infected.

Trojans

Trojan derives from the word Trojan Horse, and it works secretly on your computer. It is located hidden in a program that the user has downloaded, but after installation it runs many other programs or commands without your permission.

Not all Trojans harm a team. In some situations it is only installed on components that the user does not know. For this reason it has been related to the Trojan Horse, in the historical context, since the user receives content that has a different purpose from the original.

Rootkits

Rootkits encompass some of the most feared known malware, as they treat control of an operating system without the user's consent and without being detected.

Rootkits have the ability to hide from almost all antivirus programs through advanced programming code. And even if the user detects a rootkit file, in some cases it can prevent it from being deleted. Rootkits are the most effective method of invading a system without being discovered.

Adware

Adwares are cumbersome and annoying programs that automatically and consistently display ads to the annoyance. Most of the time, these ads are placed in your workspace and can even interfere with your computer's response time, undoubtedly affecting performance.

Currently, adwares are considered as a type of software, as they are intended to advertise and not harm a team. In most cases, the user accepts the installation, which came along with an installation of a useful program on the computer.

Spam

It is the best-known means of altering your email today. Various laws have already been implemented to reduce the practice of improper shipments that make us so uncomfortable on a daily basis. This is possibly the most harmless and most visible disorder of our teams.

Spam is an unsolicited email sent in bulk. In its most popular form, spam is an email message for advertising purposes. The term spam, however, can be applied to messages sent by other means and in even modest situations. Who has not received the typical Viagra emails?

Spams are generally conspicuous and in most cases are uncomfortable and inconvenient. These spam emails are only for advertising purposes, however, in some cases they also include viruses, so even if they seem harmless, you need to be careful.

Spyware

Spy, in English, means spy, and it was with this characteristic that spywares arose. Spywares originally monitored visited pages and other browsing habits to inform webmasters. With such information, site owners could better understand and reach users more effectively in ads, for example.

WE RECOMMEND YOU What are Bloatware or Crapware, pre-installed programs

However, over time, spywares began to be used to steal personal information (such as user names and passwords) and also to modify computer settings (such as the home page of your browser).

Spywares became the target of specific programs. Currently, spyware has been the focus of special attention of various companies that have developed specific programs in order to eliminate this type of malware.

Spyware collects information about the user, about their habits on the internet and transmits this information to an external entity without your knowledge or consent .

They differ from Trojans by not aiming for the user's system to be dominated, or even manipulated, by an external entity. Spywares can be developed by commercial firms, who want to monitor the habit of users to assess their habits and sell this data over the internet. In this way, these companies usually produce numerous variants of their spyware, perfecting and making their elimination highly difficult.

On the other hand, many of the viruses carry spyware, which aim to steal certain confidential data from users. They steal bank details, mount and send logs of user activities, steal certain files or other personal documents.

Spywares often used to come legally embedded in a shareware or freeware program. And it was eliminated when purchasing the software or going to a more complete and paid version.

Phishing

It aims to obtain confidential information by posing as a trusted person or institution and in this way obtain further advantages with your credit card details and the like.

In computing, phishing is a form of electronic fraud, characterized by attempts to acquire confidential information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, by sending an official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. In the practice of phishing, increasingly sophisticated tricks arise to obtain the confidential information of users.

Botnet

The so-called botnet is very difficult to be detected and analyzed as well, since it is quickly reconfigured and can be transmitted through links that point to IP addresses of infected websites.

It is currently considered the worst means of infection for a computer, as it can attack an extremely large number of victims.

Botnets are a number of infected computers that act together (always controlled by a hacker) to attack a page, which is known as a DDoS attack. This causes thousands or millions of computers to overload the band of a website, causing it to stop being online and have access disabled for a certain time.

Tips for trying to prevent an infection

Kaspersky Total Security Multi-device - Antivirus, 3 Devices

New Product with Manufacturer Warranty

Buy on Amazon

We leave you some tips, for us many are key:

Use strong passwords, with alternate letters and numbers, case sensitivity, change passwords periodically. Recommended every month to 6 months. Use only updated and safe operating systems or if you use Linux you are more protected. Always have a good updated antivirus on your computer (our recommended above) and, if possible, do a full system verification of periodically. Don't open unknown attachments in email messages, or messages in general. Don't download files from suspicious sites. Always be suspicious of any received files.

What did you think of our article about the different viruses that exist in computers? There are many more classes, but at the user level these are what you should know. What antivirus do you use? ?

Table of contents: