Malware

Malware, or malicious software, is software with harmful intent. Most online threats are malware of some kind.

Everything you need to know

You know how every year the medical community promotes campaigns to encourage people to get the flu vaccine? That is because flu epidemics tend to occur at a certain time — a precise moment of the year when they start to spread, infecting people.

By contrast, there are no predictable seasonal infections for PCs, mobile devices and corporate networks. Users can fall victim to a kind of artificial ailment: malware.

Malware infections each strike in a different way: from the most insidious and stealthy to those as subtle as a hammer. However, since knowledge is power, we want to show you some preventive measures against infections through a short course on malware: what it is, what symptoms it causes, how it strikes, how to deal with it and how to avoid it in the future.

What is malware?

Malware or “malicious software” is a generic term describing a harmful program or piece of code that puts a system at risk.

Hostile, intrusive and deliberately malicious, malware seeks to invade, damage or disable computers, systems, networks, tablets and mobile devices, often taking partial control of the device’s operations. Just like the flu, it interferes with their normal functioning.

The purpose of malware is to make illicit profit at the expense of users. Although malware cannot damage the physical hardware of a system or network equipment, it can steal, encrypt or delete data, alter or compromise the core functions of a computer, and spy on users’ activities without their noticing or giving any authorisation.

How does malware get in?

The recipe for a malware infection calls for a great many ingredients. First of all, there are two main ways in which malware can get into a system: the internet and email. In practice, every time you connect online.

Malware can get into your computer when we browse hacked websites, click on a game demo, download infected music files, install new toolbars from unknown vendors, set up software from unsafe sources, open malicious email attachments, or download something from the internet onto a device that lacks a quality anti-malware security application.

Malicious applications can hide inside apparently legitimate ones: in this case it is important to pay attention to the warning messages during application installation, especially if they ask for permission to access email or other personal data.

How can I tell whether I have been infected?

Malware can reveal itself through a whole range of unusual behaviours. Here are some clues that signal the presence of malware on your system:

• The computer runs more slowly or freezes, yet system resource usage is unusually high.
• A flood of irritating adverts, which should not appear, fills the screen. The presence of unexpected pop-ups is the typical symptom of a malware infection. This is a type of malware known as adware.
• You notice a mysterious loss of disk space, probably linked to rogue malware hiding on the hard drive.
• The system’s internet activity shows an unexplained increase.
• Toolbars, extensions or plugins unexpectedly appear in the browser.
• Sometimes, malware attacks are painfully obvious, deliberately flamboyant. This is the well-known case of ransomware, which presents itself to the user and informs them that it has taken possession of their data, demanding a ransom for the return of the files.
• Even if everything seems to be working properly, there is no reason to be complacent, because “no news” is not always “good news”. The most powerful malware can hide deep, conducting its dirty business without raising suspicion while it steals passwords, appropriates sensitive files or uses a PC to spread to other computers.