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Definitions MalWare & ScumWare: Malicious software - worms, viruses, trojan horses, browser hijackers, spyware, etc. Malware is any software designed to do harm to you or your computer (stealing personal information, eating up your system's resources, broadcasting your surfing habits to vendors - the list of what these programs are capable of doing is almost endless. Virus: A software program that is capable of replicating itself. Today, most viruses are capable of spreading to other computers. Many are capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the infected computers. I tend to use the term to include Worms & Trojans also. Worm: A software program that replicates itself and is self-propagating. While viruses are designed to cause problems on a local system, worms are designed to thrive in network environments. Unlike viruses, worms do not need to attach themselves to a host program to do damage. Trojan / Trojan horse: A seemingly innocent program that contains harmful code. SpyWare & AdWare: Software programs that secretly gather information about the Internet surfing habits of a user and relay it to advertisers. Browser Helper Objects (BHOs): Internet Explorer loads all resident BHOs when it starts. BHOs share IE's memory context and can detect events, create popup windows, hijack your home page, replace banner ads with other ads, and monitor messages and actions. Since BHOs appear to be part of your Browser, they are not stopped by firewalls. Browser Hijacker: Software that changes the home page of your browser Dialer programs: Software that dials 900 numbers or toll numbers without the owner's knowledge or consent. Backdoor program: Software that enables someone to enter your computer from a remote computer. Web Beacon / Web Bug / Pixel Tag: a small graphic image (often a .GIF because they can be made transparent) that is placed either on a web page or in an HTML email that is used to send the IP address of the viewing computer, what time it was viewed, how long it was viewed, what type of browser was being used, and specific cookie values. Cookies: text files that websites save on your computer in order to keep track of information they require. While many are either innocuous, or are required in order to transact business with the website, some are used to track where you've been surfing and report that info back to advertisers. Firewall: Software or hardware or a combination of the two that protects your computer or network from the Internet. Most routers have a firewall built in. u u u u u How did I get infected? Floppy Disks – not that common any more. Via your Internet connection:
IMPORTANT: As of March 2004, it is possible to be infected from an HTML email without having to open an accompanying attachment. Making sure that your Outlook Express or Outlook is properly patched. |
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©2004 by Dave Dockery |