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Malicious software, or simply malware, can be described as software that a computer user never authorized to be loaded. This means that the software can be found on user’s computer without his or her knowledge. Furthermore, a malware can be described as software that collects private information from any computer without user’s knowledge and authorization. As the name suggests, this software is malicious and can do great damage to a computer, mobile device, or other related devices. This damage can range from something as slight as altering the author’s name on a document to massive damage like making an entire device fail to function properly (Töyssy and Marko 109). The good news is that malwares can be controlled or prevented. As a matter of fact, it does not cost a fortune to keep a device safe from malware attacks. It also needs enough knowledge about them. In order to be able to do this, however, it is important to understand the various terminologies used to describe malicious software.
Types of Malicious Software
Spyware
As the name suggests, spyware operates like a spy. It can be defined as any software was made to spy and steal private information from people or organizations without their knowledge and consent. There are several ways through which the software can get into a person’s computer. Most importantly, however, the malware get into a computer as a virus. Alternatively, it may get there as a consequence of installing infected software (Aycock 8).
Virus
Virus is one of the most common malware. Unlike spyware, virus is largely designed to harm useful programs or wreck down an entire operating system. There are many ways through which virus may enter a computer. The most common way is via email attachments. A...
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...ntial information from a user. Luckily, there are reliable ways of defending against them. The most reliable way is to install strong security software that has the capacity to defend against the multifaceted forms of threats. Avoiding P2P file sharing sites and scanning email attachments before downloading them are also a surefire way of protecting a computer against malware threats. Basic acts like using an updated browser and allowing Windows updates to install and update themselves are also necessary to keep a machine safe. Furthermore, checking validity of individual website addresses and installing authenticated software can also help a computer user remain safe from potential data theft and possible damage of useful programs. It may also pay good dividends to backup files. In case of a lethal malware attack, backed-up files can always be recovered easily.
At the Aim Higher College there have been recently discovered malware on the campus systems that are due to many recent attacks. I used an Anti-virus protection software called AVG on the computer systems on campus and ran a whole computer scan. The results came back very quick of numbers of malware being high and medium priorities that these should not be taken lightly. Furthermore, the scan found many viruses, Trojans, and malicious software and applications.
Privacy and security issues have become one of the top concerns among computer users in today’s market. It has become a game of survival of the fittest in protection of your security. The only true way to defend yourself is knowledge. You should prepare your self against hackers, spammers and potential system crashing viruses and web bugs. Lets focus on how you can protect yourselves from the would be thieves.
The United States’ healthcare system is a three-trillion-dollar industry consisting of doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment providers, and health insurers. With so many components and millions of patients to care for, fast efficient health information systems are needed to reduce cost, store and modify patient information, and administer quality care (Akowuah, Yuan, Xu, Wang, 2012, pg. 40). Although health information systems have helped increase the healthcare industry’s efficiency and effectiveness, it has also exposed millions of patient’s identities and medical records to cyber-attacks. Managers in the healthcare field should be aware of cyberattacks, the laws that protect and secure patient’s privacy,
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that cybercrime costs the global economy over $400 billion per year, and that in 2013 over 3,000 companies in the United States had their systems fall victim to cybercrime (Cyber Risks, 2015, para. 3). One of the reasons that cybercrime is so prevalent is the lack of education and prevention by businesses and individuals. One of the biggest ways to prevent cybercrime is to keep your computer and other devices current with the latest patches and updates. This keeps attackers from exploiting flaws in software. Firewalls and virus protection software are some of the most common ways people and companies protect their computers and are usually the first line of defense against outside attackers going through the data coming in while accessing the internet (Norton, 2017, para. 5). These firewalls and antivirus software would be what protect businesses and people from computer as a target cybercrimes. Another good thing that can help is to have backups of original files and maintain them usually on removable storage devices that can be secured away. When it comes to protecting from scams, frauds, and other computer as tool offenses it is important for users to be cautious when online as simple as that may seem. A lot of scammers will use pop up warning or ads. A website
Computers are main technological features that allow criminals to step into unsuspecting victims lives. With a simple piggy-backing program hackers are able to track every keystroke made by the victim. One such program is called spyware, not to be confused with adware, which is often referred to interchangeably with spyware, but is potentially harmless (Louis 15). Spyware, hidden within downloaded software, implants itself deep within a computer’s hard drive, allowing it to track every move made by the user (Louis 16). Once inside a system, spyware can gather e-mail addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers.
Cyber Security as an International Security Threat National and International Security is a sum of the actions taken by countries and other organizations that can guarantee the safety and well being of their population. It is vital for a nation to pre-emptively discover what issues could affect their security, and take action to prevent any detrimental or harmful events from happening. With the development of technology and the transition into a more technologically savvy society, cyber security has become one of the most prevalent and important economic and national security issues that the United States will come to face. United States President Barack Obama has identified cyber security as a key issue the nation will face. President Obama declared that the “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security (“Foreign Policy Cyber Security,” 2013).”
In today’s days malware is designated as a software which aims to disturb a computer with the consent or permission of the owner. This term “Malware” is used by computer professionals to describe a varied forms of destructive, annoying and intrusive software code. This word “Malware” is used to indicate all types of malware which include a true set of viruses.
What is the “MALWARE”? A malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "bad ware" .Malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
In this globalized arena, with the proliferating computer users as well as computer networks, risks associated like Malware attacks are also multiplying. As the proverb
A cyber crime called 'Bot Networks', wherein spamsters and other perpetrators of cyber crimes remotely take control of computers without the users realizing it, is increasing at an alarming rate. Computers get linked to Bot Networks when users unknowingly download malicious codes such as Trojan horse sent as e-mail attachments. Such affected computers, known as zombies, can work together whenever the malicious code within them get activated, and those who are behind the Bot Networks attacks get the computing powers of thousands of systems at their disposal.
Cyber security is the protection of networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access. This is important because a great number of our confidential information is on computers and transmit that data across networks to other computers. As of now cyber-attack is one of the transnational issues that we are concern about in the United States. If these private networks were hack our national security infrastructure will be in distress.
Malicious code is a real danger to modern systems. Most systems nowadays do not work in isolation; they are more likely to be connected to other systems and sometimes they can even be dependent on them. Therefore an attack on one of the systems in the network is a potential attacking attempt to any other systems, with which it is interacting. Therefore, it is inevitable for any networked or Internet-connected computers to deal with malicious code attacks at some point. Businesses lose billions of dollars each year because of malicious code attacks. Responding to the attack and restoring all the data on the computers is a time-consuming and expensive task. It is a much better practice to try preventing it through organizing and maintaining effective defenses. However, it is important to keep in mind that there is no one general solution that can help to prevent all the attacks. Attackers are constantly looking for new ways to take advantage of systems’ vulnerabilities and find new ones. That’s why organizations have to not only defend themselves against existing attack methods, but also try to predict and prevent new attacking techniques. It means that computer and network security is a never-ending challenge and expense.
As the internet has evolved it is now a part of many people’s daily lives and with that, many could not function or conduct their daily business or lives without it. It is impressive that we can now communicate and even see someone all the way across the country with just a few clicks of a mouse. But as technology changes and progresses seemingly for the good, many will always find ways to exploit technology and use it with the intent of committing crime, turning a positive tool into a negative one. As such the negative side of the World Wide Web, cybercrime has evolved as just one of the major disadvantages of the internet. Cybercrime itself is a broad term and can and does include any crime that is committed via the internet or computer network including seemingly minor acts as downloading music, to denial of service attacks, to even acts of cyber-terrorism. With the newly formed threat of cybercrime has also come new ways for law enforcement to attack and prevent it as well but with limited resources not much can be changed but to continue to prevent new methods from approaching the cybercrime world. This is not only just in our own neighborhoods but is at an international scale. This paper generates the insight about the overall rise of cybercrime among our societies. The main focus of this paper is to describe the types of computer crimes and its effects on individuals and businesses.
In today’s society technology is used for everything. With the invention of computers and the internet this open doors to the cyber world. Today you can do almost anything without having to leave your home. The internet gives us the opportunity of shopping online, ordering food online, working from home and video chatting with friends and family across the world. Everyone has a computer and internet access in their homes. While the internet is really convenient it also opens doors for cybercrimes, loss of privacy and the need for computer security.
Cybercrime refers to all forms of crime conducted through a computer or a mobile device using computer networks. It is thus the use of a computer with the aim of intercepting and manipulating content, disrupting communication, stealing or generally destroying others’ information or hardware through a network. Although cybercrime is a worldwide problem and affects both small and big companies, small companies are affected more from the dangers of cybercrime. The rapid advancement in technology is causing tremendous problems to businesses in terms of more sophisticated cyber-attacks. This project is interesting and beneficial because it enlightens one on the dangers of cybercrime, thus preparing individuals to know how to prevent attacks while online, how to reduce the effects of a cyber-attack and how to prevent future