What is a computer virus | What is computer virus | Define computer virus | What is Viruses | What is Worms | What is Trojan Horses | Define malware | How does malware invade your computer? | Are you running any servers? | What do viruses do? | What does malware do? | How can you check virus | Blackhat vs Whitehat

What is a computer virus?

A computer virus is a malicious program that spreads from computer to computer.

Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses

• Have you heard other names for malicious computer programs?
• Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses
• There are technical differences between each of these, but all of them attempt to run on your computer without your knowledge.

Malware

• The most general name for a malicious computer program is malware.
• You may have heard computer programs called software.
• The word malware comes from MALicious softWARE.

How does malware invade your computer?

• You have probably heard of some ways that malware can invade your computer.
• What are they?
• Through email attachments
• By clicking on a web link when surfing the web
• By downloading a program that claims to be a game or cool picture
• Others?

Front Door Attacks

• What do many of these attacks (through email, web browsing or downloads) have in common?
• They all require the actions of a legitimate user.
• They can be considered “front door” attacks because a user is tricked into opening the door for the attack through their action.

Understanding Front Door Attacks

1. The key to understanding front door attacks is that when you run a program it runs with *all* your rights and privileges.
2. If you can delete one file, any program you run can delete all your files.
3. If you can send one email, any program you run could send thousands of spam emails.
4. This includes any program you run even accidentally by opening an email attachment or clicking on web link.

Back Door Attacks

1. Not all attacks require action by a legitimate user.
2. “Back door” attacks target vulnerabilities in server software that is running on your computer.
3. Server software is software that listens for requests that arrive over the network and attempts to satisfy these requests.
4. A web server is an example of server software.

Are you running any servers?

• Most home computer users think they are not running any server software.
• However you would be surprised.
• For example, most default installations of Windows run a number of network services by default.

How can you check?

At a Windows command prompt, type the command “netstat –an”.
It will display a list of server software that is listening for requests over the network.

What do viruses do?

1. Once an attacker manages to exploit a weakness, they can run any code they want on the victim’s machine.
2. Attack codes vary in what they try to do.
3. Have you ever suffered a computer attack? What happened to your machine? How hard was it to recover?

What does malware do?

• Some attackers just want to see if they can make an attack succeed.
• The malware they write may simply displaying something to the user or announce its presence in another way.
• Other attackers want to do damage to others without trying to benefit directly.
• The malware they write might delete files or otherwise corrupt the system.
• Still others try to write malware that steals information from the victim.
• The malware they write might search for credit card numbers or other personal information and send it back to the attacker.
• Spyware might watch for victim’s passwords or otherwise spy on their online activity.

Blackhat vs Whitehat   

• Blackhat computer hackers look for flaws in software to exploit them or break into computer for malicious purposes.
• Whitehat computer hackers look for flaws in software to fix them or attempt to break into computers to audit their security.

What do whitehat hackers do?

• Analyze server software for flaws that could be exploited and recommend fixes.
• Analyze new viruses or malware to characterize what they are doing and to build patches.
• Audit the overall security of computer systems.

Incoming Search Tearms

What is a front door attack? What are some examples?
What is a back door attack? What are some examples?
Give some examples of what malware tries to accomplish.
Describe ways that whitehat hackers try to make systems more secure.
Describe things you can do to secure your computer against attack.
What is a computer virus?
computer virus
What is a computer virus
What is computer virus
Define computer virus
What is Viruses
What is Worms
What is Trojan Horses
Define malware
How does malware invade your computer?
Are you running any servers?
What do viruses do?
What does malware do?
How can you check virus
Blackhat vs Whitehat