PC-ER Malware Guide
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Trojan Horse
In Greek Mythology, the Greeks gave up a siege of the city of Troy and left a
huge wooden horse (the "Trojan Horse") outside the city which the residents of Troy pulled into the city after the Greeks left.
The horse was filled with Greek soldiers who attacked the city at night after
Troy let their guard down. In computers, a "Trojan Horse" or just "Trojan" works
in exactly the same way. A program or file that seems to be innocent or useful
also has a component that is malicious, usually opening a way for a hacker to
have remote access to the system.
Rootkit
Rootkits are a very frustrating form of malware and many of the more
recent infestations have some sort of rootkit component A rootkit is malicious
software that modifies key parts of the operating system to avoid detection.
They also usually have a a fail-safe system where two processes run at once and
if one is stopped, the other will start it back up again making it virtually
impossible to remove from within the Windows environment.
Adware and Spyware
Adware and spyware, commonly referred to simply as "spyware or grayware", is
software that is primarily used either to gather information for marketing
purposes (but sometimes for identity theft as well) or to serve ads to the host
computer. Many times these are installed by "free" software that is downloaded
from the internet. Be leery of free software! Ask yourself what is being gained
by the creators of the software? There are, of course, exceptions to this.
Software that is "open source" and released as part of a GPL license is almost
always spyware free. Doing a little research on a program can usually weed out
the bad ones.
Conclusion
We hope this overview has helped you understand the different kinds of malware
that are out there. For more information, please contact us!
