Whether you saw a message saying a virus was detected or your computer seems slow and unreliable, this guide will walk you through the process of dealing with your infection and removing the malware.
While many viruses and other types of malware are designed simply to cause chaos, more and more malware is used by organized crime to steal credit card numbers and other sensitive data.
Malware is a worldwide problem. If there is electricity, an Internet connection and a computer, there will be viruses, worms, Trojans and other sneaky programs trying to gain access to your computer. Where do these nasty creatures come from?
A large percentage of the world’s malware comes from China. According to AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange platform, China is the capital of malicious Internet addresses, based on 95,249 addresses analyzed. The United States comes in second with 60,346, well ahead of the third, fourth and fifth malware vectors: South Korea (16,115), Russia (13,367) and Taiwan (12,504).
How is this malware being delivered? The average virus wants to find its way into computers. Direct injection (where a virus is not hidden in a different type of file) is fairly rare. Far more commonly, malware hitches a ride on an otherwise benign file. This is the reason why security programs scan all files downloaded to a computer. The top malware-infested file type is .exe, the most common file type for a Windows program.
According to LookOut, a company that makes security apps for mobile devices, in-app advertising is becoming overly aggressive and sometimes even crossing the line over to spyware.
Anyone that has an Android or Apple device is probably familiar with ad-support apps. At one time it was no big deal, just a small banner ad at the bottom or top of the screen. These days it’s gone much further. Some in-app ad networks push ads to your device’s notification tray, shove icons on to your homescreen, and even change your ringtone to a commercial! There are also some mobile ad networks that collect far more personal info than you think, including your phone number, location, mobile provider, and device IMEI and model number, and almost all of them are a drain on your battery.
As the father of two young teens, I often worry about where my kids’ Internet searches might inadvertently take them or what viruses they might download by innocently clicking on an unsecured webpage or by clicking on a malware-laden spam e-mail attachment.
Cybercrimes are becoming more mobile.
As more smartphones and tablets are being used, cyberthieves aren't just targeting personal computers to steal information for financial gain, antivirus security experts say.
Android's surge in popularity has triggered an accompanying surge in malware aimed at the mobile OS, says a new study today from Fortinet.
In the fight against malware, Apple's iOS outshines Android as a safer environment, but no mobile device is free from risk, says a new report from McAfee (PDF).
Juniper Networks is reporting a shocking 472 percent increase in the incidence of Android malware since July of this year. What's going on, and is Android becoming a malware writer's dream?
Microsoft issued a temporary fix this evening for a previously unknown critical Windows vulnerability being exploited by the Duqu Trojan to infect systems.
Yet again, Facebook finds itself accused of installing cookies to follow its users - even after they've cut their ties with the social network.
Facebook recently came under fire for allegedly tracking users’ browser activity after they had logged out of the site. The accusation was enough to prompt privacy advocates to call for an investigation of the company, which for its part insists the actions were solely to identify users and not to actually spy on them. Futhermore, Facebook said it will no longer use cookies to keep user identification.
In the world of mobile malware, Android is the biggest target for malicious hackers. Nobody ever thinks of iOS as a target for hackers because the review process for the Apple App Store keeps most insidious apps on the outside, looking in. That does not mean that iPhones and iPads do not need some type of security layer for data loss, missing devices and kernel management.
