Things Are Going To Get A Lot Nastier
Most people who are active on the Internet have probably heard terms like spyware, adware, and perhaps even malware. These are all terms used to describe software that invades people’s computers for the purposes of making money for someone else.
These program are designed to invade a victim’s computer without the owner’s knowledge and can be very difficult to remove.
There are many variations of this malicious software, which I will simply call malware for my purposes here. Malware can be as simple as a harmless (but irritating) program that delivers pop-up advertising to your computer screen, or as harmful as a program that runs silently in the background each time you start your computer and records everything you type and then sends all that information to some crook somewhere.
I was reading this article in the printed version of that publication last evening and realized that what they are saying is right on target. A hacker’s focus these days is no longer to impress other hackers with their computer prowess, but to use their hacking skills to make money. Hacking is evolving from a hobby and becoming more of a business, or perhaps more accurately, a criminal enterprise.
Yes, the article I referenced above talks mainly about how this new breed of hackers are going after businesses, but you can be sure that there is no shortage of hackers who are quite satisfied to settle for much smaller fish. Like you and me.
Just reference the Internet Dangers section of this site to see just a few of the scams that have been sent my way. Granted, these are more “social engineering” scams and have little or nothing to do with malware, but it just proves that anyone can be a target. Not just big companies with deep pockets.
I also ran across another article that covers this subject and even offers a few ideas for combating it. I agree completely with this article and believe he has some very good ideas on fighting it malware I’ve already started investigating BartPE and will be experimenting with it for use in my own defense against the growing cadre of Internet lowlife.
It is not my intent to scare people away from the Internet. Hardly. As someone who makes a good deal of his living through the net, I naturally want as many people as possible out there searching for my products and services.
My intent is to make people understand that you can no longer simply plug a computer into the Internet and expect to be left alone. Unless you intend to limit your Internet visits to a very small number of trusted sites, you can be sure you will eventually wind up on a site that attempts to invade your computer and install malware.
In many cases, all it takes is a visit to the wrong web site to infect your computer with this stuff. The creators of these malicious programs stay on top of the latest news regarding computer vulnerabilities and know exactly how to exploit them.
Even if you manage to avoid every harmful web site on the Internet, you are still susceptible to the more active virus programs out there that can connect to your computer and infect your machine with a virus without you ever suspecting a thing. These types of virus programs often exploit software vulnerabilities, and there never seems to be a shortage of those to take advantage of.
If you have questioned whether or not things like anti-virus programs and firewall programs are worth the money, do not wonder any longer. Spend the extra few dollars to protect your computer, your privacy, your identity and your assets.
Even with all the ant-virus, anti-spyware and firewall protection, you still may not be safe. If you read the article I mentioned above on the SpyWareInfo site, you know about these “rootkits” and other nasty methods that may be able to hide these malware programs even from the best anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.
The anti-virus developers are going to have to come up with more sophisticated methods that have the capabilities of programs like BartPE to examine a system from outside the environment that your computer normally operates within.
I don’t wish to diminish the value of anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that are available today. They are still quite capable of protecting you from a vast number of threats that you are likely to encounter on the net, and I’m sure that they will evolve and improve as new threats emerge.
Protect yourself and don’t let these cyber crooks make you a victim.
