Thursday, March 28, 2024
01:39 PM (GMT +5)

Go Back   CSS Forums > Off Topic Section > Computers and Technology

Computers and Technology Discuss computer issues, topics, and technology. Ask your questions about computer related problems, software, gadgets, computer science & emerging technologies.

Reply Share Thread: Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook     Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter     Submit Thread to Google+ Google+    
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread
  #1  
Old Thursday, January 24, 2008
amy's Avatar
amy amy is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: mostly in my thoughts which r wid me in Karachi.
Posts: 567
Thanks: 429
Thanked 269 Times in 157 Posts
amy has a spectacular aura aboutamy has a spectacular aura about
Default The most common Internet dangers

There are several forms of malicious software infections, (malware), which may compromise your computer system. Unlike viruses in the old days, most malicious software operates in the background without the computer user even knowing that they are there. Among them are:

Adbots –
Adbots are used to deliver unwanted advertisements to your computer, usually in the form of pop up windows. While these are not that harmful in and of themselves, they do indicate that your computer is not adequately protected and is probably infected with other malware.

Backdoor –
A backdoor is a way in to your computer, bypassing the normal authentication procedures. Backdoors allow hackers to utilize your computer for any reason in which they can conceive.

DDoS Zombie –
One type of virus you might have on your computer creates a backdoor in to your system for which a hacker can "call up" your computer to be used as a Distributed Denial of Service tool. Basically, your computer is used along with thousands

of other infected computers to send mass amounts of network traffic to a target machine, (usually a web service for which the owner is being attacked for not giving in to extortion). Again, especially with computers connected to high speed internet connections such as DSL, the owner of the computer is likely to not even know that their computer is being used as a tool to carry out malicious internet attacks. A computer which is infected in such a way is said to be a "zombie" computer.

Dialers –
Have you ever had your computer modem dial the network by itself, as if it had a mind of its own? If so, you probably had a Dialer infection on your computer. Besides being used as a tool to automatically connect to sites to download even more malware to your computer, a Dialer can call 900 numbers which can run up your phone bill. Dialers take advantage of the fact that many users save the user and password pair for their dialup connection out of convenience. As it turns out, it's convenient for hackers as well.

Downloaders –
This is malware which is used by someone to download files from your computer to their computer. For example, they might be interested in files with extensions common to spreadsheets, database files or income tax files, to name a few.

Hijackers -
Hijackers take control of various parts of your web browser, including your home page, search pages, and search bar. They may also redirect you to certain sites should you mistype an address or prevent you from going to a website they would rather you not, such as sites that provide software updates. Hijackers most frequently target Internet Explorer.

Keyloggers –
Anyone who has ever had their identity stolen and suffered financial loss would tell you to pay close attention to the following information. Keyloggers are malware which can capture the keystrokes from your keyboard and save them to a file to be transmitted to a hacker later on. Usually, Keyloggers are awakened when you invoke a secure session, such as SSH or ordering products online through a "secure" order form, (so much for 'secure' network ordering). A hacker can gather useful information such as user/password pairs, PIN #'s, account #'s, credit card information and other personal information about you which could be used to steal your identity for the purposes of their financial gain in your name and your liability.

Spybots –
Not to be confused with the anti-spyware software by the same name, spybots send information from your computer back to interested parties about your activities, (such as what websites you visit), for the purpose of gathering information about you.

Spyware –
Spyware is a generic term for malicious software which ends up on your computer, and is used to gather information about you and other files on your computer. This information includes what sites you visit, or in worse cases, personal information used for identity theft.

Trojans –
Simply put, these are backdoors in to your computer in which access is gained by hackers on the internet to either gather information from your computer or to use your

computer as a tool for malicious activity such as internet extortion schemes, sending spam from your computer or using your computer to hack in to other systems.

Viruses –
In the old days, the fact that you had a virus on your computer would usually become immediately obvious as they would do malicious damage to your computer. These days, the creators of viruses have other intentions in mind. A virus has become a generic term for many types of malicious software installed on your computer. The most common type today are Trojans, which like the name implies, create backdoor entry points in to your computer. Especially with high speed connections like DSL, your computer may be compromised and not give any signs of infection.

Worms –
Worms can replicate themselves from one machine to another without the need of downloading them from the internet. They often send themselves as attachments in emails they generate from their infected host computer. Worms can be used as Trojans to open doorways to your computer or to send out spam. You know all that spam you get that is annoying beyond belief? Chances are, most of it is coming from computers on the network which are compromised by worms that remain undetected.
__________________
" Woods are lovely dark and deep But i have promises to keep And miles to go before i sleep "
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old Thursday, February 14, 2008
Fatima Ali's Avatar
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 57
Thanks: 0
Thanked 10 Times in 8 Posts
Fatima Ali is infamous around these parts
Default

@amy

a few mistakes:
Worms –
Worms can replicate themselves from one machine to another """without the need of downloading them from the internet"""". """They often send themselves as attachments in emails ""they generate from their infected host computer.

Here you should be clear about the meaning of the terms "downloading" and the system of emailing..the quoted words are going against eachother, when u r using or opening an email, it means that u r downloading information from the Server thats providing you email services....

when a program is moving from one system to another it then means that it is using the internet and thus is uploaded and downloaded.

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network (meaning it can upload and download itself through internet from one computer to any other,thus using internet downloading pocess, or from any server to any client or vice versa) to send copies of itself to other nodes (computer terminals on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program, because it can propagate without the need of any host. Worms almost always cause harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.

TROJAN HORSE:
trojan horse is actually a malicious computer code which pretends to perform a useful task but infact its functions are destructive. it can act as a virus or worm depending heavily on the form of code in it..
the heading uve mentioned separately come under trojan horse:
1. backdoor.
2. DoS (denial of service, means trojan causes the network to get so heavily loaded that the end users can't get the desired data from the servers, and hence named denial of service..the bandwidth available is consumed by the trojan to do destructions)

3.not only downloads but also uploads.
4. dialers are infact the "URL Trojans"
5. remote access (allowing a faraway system to get acess into your system, by sending a trapdoor which finds eak holes in the kernel of the operating system to make an attack easier)
6.email sending and making its contents diffferent according to the will of the attacker, such as the signature of the real owner of the email id.
7. logging (making a list of or storing the record of the keystrokes made by the user on the keyboard) keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers.
8. trojans also disable the security softwares or the firewall installed on ur system.
9. opening and closing of your CD-ROM tray automatically.

Since trojans have many different forms, they cannot be deleted by using only one type of anti-malicious software, normally a good antiirus can be used to delete them, by deleting the temporary internet files, or by running your system in a safe mode and deleting the trojans manually which normally reside in the registry of the computer system. you can be safe somehow from the trojan destructions by not opening the unknown emails, and other insecure websites because it infects the system through emails, instant messaging (chating), through floppy disks and flash memoies etc...

SO BE CAREFUL!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Civil Servants on CSS Forum Zirwaan Khan CSS Competitive Examination 47 Thursday, June 29, 2023 12:03 AM
WEb Building GLossary Terms Janeeta Computer Science 3 Monday, November 04, 2019 12:09 AM
How things work? dr.janxeb General Science Notes 24 Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:07 PM
Internet terms Princess Royal Computers and Technology 0 Tuesday, May 06, 2008 09:27 PM
European Union Aarwaa Current Affairs Notes 0 Sunday, April 20, 2008 10:34 PM


CSS Forum on Facebook Follow CSS Forum on Twitter

Disclaimer: All messages made available as part of this discussion group (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are the responsibility of the author of that message and not of CSSForum.com.pk (unless CSSForum.com.pk is specifically identified as the author of the message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using this web site does not mean that CSSForum has endorsed that message in any way or verified the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message. We encourage visitors to the forum to report any objectionable message in site feedback. This forum is not monitored 24/7.

Sponsors: ArgusVision   vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.