Internet Security Threats Lexicon : Virus, Malware, Trojan, Worm, Spyware, Adware, Botnet etc.

Several terms such as Malware, Viruses / Compute Viruses, E-mail viruses, Trojans / Trojan Horses, Rootkit, Backdoor, Spyware, Adware, Grayware / Greyware, Stealware, Browser hijacker, Botnet, Keystock loggers which are related to Internet Security Threats is presented in this page. This may treated a short tutorials of Internet security threat related issues. The terms are also very helpful for any person to understand the features of the antivirus product or to find the best antivirus for his or her personal use.

• The word "Malware" is derived from the words malicious and software.
• This term is used for all types of malicious software.
• Malware is a software specially designed to damage a computer system without the owner's knowledge.
• Malware is not a defective software.
• It's not a true virus and many people think it as computer viruses as they aren't familiar with this term.
• Malware includes:
• Viruses or computer viruses
• Spyware
• Worms
• Trojan Horses
• Rootkits
• Several adware
• Untrusted and unwanted software

• A type of malware which is best-known.
• It is a computer program which could copy itself and spread and infect user's computer without any knowledge or permission of the computer user.
• It can also defined, it's a small piece of software or program which piggybacks the real software or program.
• The term "viruses" may mistakenly termed as malware and adware.
• Viruses always try to corrupt or modify files on the targeted computer.
• Viruses can only spread through Internet.
• Viruses may modify themselves and then copies or the copies may modify themselves.
• Viruses may attach themselves to a program also such as spreadsheet.
• Viruses spread through the Internet, local network, floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB drive.
• Today's viruses may take advantages on www, e-mail, IM or file sharing systems.
• (c)Brain is the world's first PC virus.

Examples of viruses / computer viruses:

• Trojan.Win32.Agent.avoo
• Backdoor.Win32.SdBot.iwu
• Worm.Win32.AutoRun.uof
• ILOVEYOU
• Natas

• A kind of viruses which travels as an attachment to e-mails.
• It can replicate itself by mailing form the victim's e-mail address book.
• Some e-mail viruses automatically spread when people download e-mails through several software.

• It's a self-replicating small piece of compute program.
• It uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself.
• First, it scans the security holes and copies itself through the holes to the new machines and then start replicating in this way.
• All these are done without any user intervention.
• Worms cause dramatic harm to the network by consuming bandwidth.
• Worms are not same as Trojans.

Examples of worm / Computer worm / Internet worm:

• Scalper
• SoBig
• Swen
• ExploreZip

• Simply a computer program
• The computer program claims as to do one thing (it may claim to be a free virus scanning tool) but instead of doing that does a damage when we run it.
• Sometimes it may erase the hard disk.
• It can't replicate itself automatically.
• Trojans generally steal passwords or perform DoS (Denial of service) attacks.

Examples of Trojans / Trojan Horses: 

• Backdoor
• Nuker

• A malware consists of a single program or a combination of several programs.
• It takes the fundamental control of the computer system without the system owners or the administrator.
• They sometimes fool users and advertise themselves as they are safe to run. When users run then it takes control to the root level of the computer system.
• Crackers may use rootkits to control computers and evade detection
• There are 5 types of rootkits: firmware, hypervisor, kernel, library, and application level kits.

• It's a process of bypassing normal authentication procedure.
• It allows cracker to access information on other computer.
• Computer manufacturer pre-installed it to provide technical support to different hardware or software level. But several malicious program could find those and spread to the computer and does a great damage sometimes.
• To install backdoor, Trojan horses or worms are used by the crackers.

• Spyware is a compute program that attach itself to the operating system in wicked ways.
• It can be said that they are the cousins of Trojans, worms and viruses
• They generally degrades computer's processing power.
• Recent estimate reveals that more than two-thirds of the personal computers are affected by it.
• Spyware can collect several types of personal information such as Internet surfing habits of any user.
• Also, can change computer settings which results slow speed, different home page of the browser etc.
• Spyware is not computer viruses.
• They are not designed to harm any computer. Their aim may be to show advertise.
• Sometimes, they even use hard drive to store & broadcast pornography and advertise back to the Internet.
• Most spyware targets Windows Operating System.
• Some spyware companies are Gator, 180 Solutions, Cydoor, CoolWebSearch.

• They are similar to spyware.
• Adware is a simple program specially designed to deliver unrequested advertising when users surf to the Internet.
• May create unwanted effects of the system such as displaying pop-up ad windows.
• They are installed as separate programs.

• An application that behaves in a undesirable or unexpected manner and can be treated sometimes as Malware when it causes several trouble to computers.
• Actually, they are application not like viruses or Trojan horses.
• They significantly decrease computer and network performance.
• Grayware perform several variety of undesired actions such as creating pop-up windows, tracking user habits etc.

• A type of malicious program.
• They embedded themselves deeply to the browser's code and core functionality.
• They replace the existing browser's home page or search page with its own.
• They try to force hits to a particular websites.

Example of browser hijacker:

• Morwill Search
• CoolWebSearch

• Botnet is a collection of bots oar software robots which can run automatically and autonomously.
• It's a type of malicious software.
• Several group of computers may be infected with this kind of robot software or bots.
• It's a great security threat to the computer owner.
• If the robot software is installed successfully, the installed computer becomes a zombie and unable to resist the commands of the bot commanders.
• The size of the botnet varies.
• A large botnet may be composed of ten to twenty thousand individual zombies.
• A small botnet may be composed of thousand dozens of individual zombies.

• A type of malware which creates profits by stealing valuable information from the user's computer.
• Some type of malware program install key logger which copies usres keystockes at the time of putting password or credit card number. Then the information is passed to the creator.
• Malware may also copy CD key or password for online games.

All the terms are explained very shortly but in a descriptive way. They are very much helpful both for the non-technical users and the technical users to understand several terms which are used for Internet Security Threats world. Moreover, people may detect the types of security problem. They also understand the feature sets of several Internet security related products such as antivirus, spyware removal etc. They can also compare several feature set of the Internet security products.

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