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October is not only National Cyber Security
Awareness Month, it's also the time to celebrate
Halloween, bringing to mind scary things that are
merely figments of our imagination. In the digital
world, however, there are many scary things that are
not figments of our imagination, that we should in
fact be worried about. The threats in cyber space
are real. One of the most important concerns is
malware, short for malicious software. The volume of
malware continues to surge, with ransomware
infections increasing, malware now targeting mobile
devices, and new strands of malware attempting to
exploit vulnerabilities in aging automated teller
machines (ATMs).
Playing on the Halloween theme of scary things, below are some examples of malware you should be aware of, and some tips for minimizing your risks. What Are Some Examples Of Malware? Ghosts. No, we aren't talking about the ghosts you'll see on Halloween. In the cyber world we have Gh0st, an infamous piece of malware that is commonly used by threat actors to remotely access a target and assume complete control. Some versions of Gh0st have the ability to activate the camera and audio-recording functions of the infected machine if the machine has those features. Zombies. Unlike the make-believe zombies you see in the movies, cyber zombies are real. In the online world, a zombie is a machine compromised with malware and controlled by a hacker. Zombies can send spam, launch denial-of-service attacks and infect other machines, becoming part of a large group of compromised computers being controlled remotely (known as botnets). Mutations. This malware (known as polymorphic malware) morphs its code to constantly change its form. This mutating process keeps the malware from being detected by pattern-matching analysis tools. Frankenstein. Continuing along the lines of the mutating software, the Frankenstein malware takes small pieces of software from trusted programs and stitches them together, making the resulting malware undetectable. How Does Malware Get On Your Machine? Poison. Hackers looking to target your machine know how to poison search results to get you to click on a site that hosts malware. Cyber criminals can sometimes deface legitimate websites by adding content that is designed to rank highly in search results, knowing the first returned sites are more likely to be clicked on directly. How Can You Minimize Your Risk?
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