Cyber Security For Beginners: Part 7
Hey guys, welcome back to yet another blog in the Cyber Security for Beginners blog series. In this blog, we are going to discuss threats as it pertains to the field of cyber security.
Computer Security Threats
In this era of Information Technology, every day people use computers for new purposes. Computers and other electronic devices are becoming increasingly affordable. We humans are continually being dependent on these devices for carrying out most of our daily chores. However, there are many threats to the security of these systems. So, in this small blog, we are gonna explore a little about the different threats associated with computer systems and networks. Before we begin, we will start off by defining what exactly is a threat? A threat can be defined as something that poses danger to an entity and disrupts the normal flow of events related to that entity.
Threats can be internal or external. Internal threats include entities that are present on the inside of an organization. For example, an employee who is maliciously harming the company for whom he is working for. External threats are threats on the outside. Examples include attacks from hackers, spammers etc. There are different types of threats to our data and devices such as physical damage and technical failures, but we are only focusing on Computer Security Threats. These Security Threats are possible dangers that can affect the smooth functioning of our devices. Since all of the Security Threats will not fit in the scope of the blog, we are only discussing about the most common one: Malware.
Malware is short for malicious software, which refers to the software designed to damage the computer or make changes in the computer not intended by the user. There are different types of malware. We will discuss about some below.
Computer Virus:
Virus is a type of malicious program which, when executed, replicates itself with the sole goal of infecting as many networked systems as possible. Viruses are designed to damage the target computer or device by corrupting data, reformatting your hard disk, or completely shutting down your system. Viruses does not execute itself and propagate by themselves, but they can easily spread to any device connected to the infected device unless protected by a good antivirus.
Computer Worms:
A worm is similar to a computer virus. It is a computer program which replicates itself without any interaction. But unlike virus, they spread over computer networks by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the operating system. Worms can harm computer networks by consuming bandwidth, but most worms contain payloads, which can damage the computer itself. Payload is the portion of code which performs malicious actions on the computer.
Ransomware:
This is a type of malware which threatens the victim by locking them out of their systems and preventing them the access to the data. They restrict the users access to data by encrypting the data. Most of the time, this can be easily reversed but, some are impossible to recover without the decryption key. In this scenario we will be forced to pay the attacker in exchange for the key. Hence the word, ransom.
Trojan Horse:
Trojan is a type of malware which will appear to be a normal piece of software but may consists of many harmful programs in its repository. When connected to internet, these programs can steal your credit card details or any other confidential data. Since trojans can’t replicate like virus or worms, they infect the device by tricking the users to download them, often presenting them as a legitimate software.
Spyware:
Spyware is a type of malware which monitors activities of the user without their knowledge, these types of malware are used by hackers to steal sensitive data of the victim. Some government agencies install spyware in civilians’ computers to track them.
Keyloggers are used by employers to oversee the use of their computers, but can be a threat when an attacker installs this in a victim’s system without their knowledge. Keyloggers store every keystroke performed on the victim’s system and is sent to the attacker when connected to internet. This can be used to perform malicious activities such as stealing credit card details and passwords. Keyloggers can be installed as a software or as a hardware.
So that’s it guys. Just remember that there are lots of stuff to learn about threats. This blog should only be considered as an introduction. Do check out the resources below for more information. Until next time, Ciao!
