.: Types of Computer Infection
By:Alex Rider
Category:Home / Computers / Data Recovery
Since computers are an essential aspect of modern life, looking set to become yet further embroiled in our every day movements, their day to day reliability is fundamental.
Unfortunately there are people who seek to disrupt the use of computers with a variety of programs that are able to infect computers and subsequently damage them in some way.
These malicious programs range in effect from the mildly irritating to severely damaging. Computer operation is interfered with, data is deleted, recorded or corrupted, movement of the infection often rapidly spreading by the use of the internet.
Assaults on our computers often display the weaknesses in our security. Attacks such as these also highlight the degree to which we have all become interconnected and more sophisticated technologically.
Of the wide variety of computer infections in existence four characteristic varieties occur:
- Trojan horse: a computer program that masquerades as being able to perform a certain (usually benign or useful) task but that actually performs a different and damaging action e.g. erasing your hard drive or allowing open access to your computer. Once you click to use the program it downloads and your computer is suddenly infected.
- Viruses: these software programs attach themselves to specific programs. When these particular programs run, so does the virus, the result typically that your computer has been damaged in some way.
- E-mail viruses: these viruses are transported between computers via e-mail messages. Replication is achieved usually by this virus automatically e-mailing its self to most if not all of the e-mail addresses on the host computer.
- Worms: computer networks and the particular weak spots in their defenses are exploited by this electronic infection in order to propagate its self. A copy of this worm is able to scan the whole network for other computers with similar security holes through which it can then move to another computer for duplication.
Amongst the many cases of highly successful electronic infections a few notable ones have occurred. One of the best known was:
Code Red worm. This worm was released to devastating effect on the 19th of July 2001. In the space of 9 hours the worm duplicated its self onto new computers over 250,000 times. This worm replicated its self during the initial 20 days of each month, replaced infected servers with web pages displaying "Hacked by Chinese", and continuously targeted the White House Web server aiming to slow it or shut their website down. After a computer had become infected a wait of about an hour occurred, after which 100 connections would be attempted to port number 80 of the www.whitehouse.gov website (IP number 198.137.240.91). The US government responded by modifying the IP address and spreading the word about the Code Red worm. As with many infections, strains have appeared over time. Since this is a well known infection it has been monitored very closely with patches being freely available on the internet with which to combat the new strains.
Other major malicious programs from the past have been the "Slammer worm" from January 2003, "Mydoom worm" (January 2004), the "ILOVEYOU" (2000) and "Melissa" viruses.
So as not to become yet another statistic during the next major computer infection outbreak what is imperative is that you frequently update your computer with the latest antivirus tools and patches, read about current threats and follow basic preventative protocol regarding the opening of attachments and downloading of files.
If your computer does become infected the most important aspect to focus in on first is to target it specifically so that it is unable to spread to any more computers.
Article keywords: data recovery, data backup, data loss, data retrieval, data security, data storage, disaster recovery
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Is information on virus data recovery required? If so, visit http://www.easydatarecovery.info/Got-Virus.php for more information.
.: New Data Recovery Articles
1). A Brief History of Ontrack Data Recovery
When we talk of data recovery, terms like hard disk data recovery, hard drive recovery, and other terms related to computers are always in the surface. In terms of companies offering data recovery, several names can be mentioned, but definitely only few are known.
2). The Current and Future State of the Hard Drive and Data Recovery Industries
Where have we been and where are we going when it comes to Data Recovery? Find out the details in the following article.
3). What To Do For Data Tape Recovery
It always seems like computer problems wait until the worst moment to then spring up and say HaHa, Gotcha! Fret no more, this article looks into the various ways to combat data tape corruption and recover the all important data!
4). Prevent Data Loss! A Few Tips to Live by so You Never have to Visit a Data Recovery Specialist
Preventing a major data loss on your personal computer can be prevented by following these simple guidelines
5). Website Spiders, Discover Incredible Tips On Getting Your Site Indexed Super Fast
How do website spiders crawl and index a site? If you own a website, you should at least know how it is done. The only way visitors will be able to view your website is through the information gathered by the spiders and handed over to the search engines.
6). Data Recovery The Truth
Everything you ever wanted to know about data recovery.
7). Getting Acquainted With Offsite Data Backup
Off-site data backup should be an important part of your life if you have any data that you can not afford to lose. It may seem a bit confusing to you, but once you understand the basics you will agree that no one should be with out off-site data backup.
.: Top Data Recovery Articles
1). Hard Disk Failure and Data Recovery
Hard Disk: An Introduction
Hard disk is a non-volatile data storage device that stores electronic data on a magnetic surface layered onto hard disk platters. Word Hard is use to differentiate it from a soft, or floppy disk. Hard disks hold more data and can store from 10 to more than 100 gigabytes, whereas most floppies have a maximum storage capacity of 1.
2). XCACLS, SUNINACL, And Other Permissions Security Recovery Tools
You Have 50GB Of Data To Move Along With Permissions Security
----------------------------
This article is about several tools that can save a Windows administrators you know what in the event of a large scale permissions security problem.
Here is a fictional scenario we can use to illustrate the use of the XCACLS tool. We need to move or copy 50GB worth of data that is comprised of several thousand directories containing hundreds of thousands of small files from one storage system to another.
3). How To Recover Data Or Survive A Hard Disk Disaster
Disk failure occurs when a hard disk drive no longer operates and the information on it can no longer be accessed by the computer.
This can happen for no reason at all or due to an external factor such as exposure to fire or water or High Magneticwaves or suffering a sharp impact
How seriously the disk failure is varies.
4). Types of Computer Infection
Brief descriptions of the kinds of malicious software that abounds in todays computerised world are described and explained.
5). Data Recovery - What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails
How many times have you experienced that sickening feeling when your hard drive suddenly fails? How many times have you experienced that your hard disk just does not boot and all the data may be gone forever? A hard drive failure is one of the most common problems and worst nightmares faced by computer operators all over the world. Precious data is lost either at home or in big corporate environments.
6). Can USB Data Recovery Be Recovered?
When you store important information on a USB device, you take the chance of losing that information. Losing data on a USB can be kind of a mystery, but there are companies out there that can help you get that data back. These companies use engineering that can recover your lost data over ninety six percent of the time. These companies can even recover data that has been stored on a damaged USB device.
7). COMPUTER PROBLEMS-Data Recovery and PC Protection
Data recovery and PC protection go hand in hand. Data recovery is a challenge faced by everyone using a computer. If you are reading this article I am sure you too like me have faced it sometime or the other. Now data loss can be due to a system crash that is the software crash or due to the hardware crash. Around 66% of the data loss is caused by software and user oriented problems.