Characteristics and common sources of infection with malware

There are several characteristics to detect that your computer is infected. Some strange things happen when your PC is infected as:

Abnormal messages, images and signals shown are reproduced as sounds;

The CD-ROM tries to open and close suddenly;

Some begin to run arbitrary programs on your PC;

A message is displayed indicating that suddenly one of your programs is trying to connect to the Internet, thinking that you have not done anything.

You can suspect that your computer is infected by a virus.

Behind all this there are several features of virus infections by e-mail: His or her friends and acquaintances tell you that they have received messages that you have not sent;

Not always indicate that these data are not always indicated by viruses. Sometimes result from other reasons, for example, infected messages can be sent with your address but have not been sent from your computer.

The indirect features of infection on your computer are:

Irregular behavior of software and hardware, including failure and/or slowing down the computer, crashing the system components

Slowdown when working with the computer or when launching programs

It is impossible to read the operating system's memory.

Files and folders disappear or their contents are distorted

Hard drive activity (the hard drive light stays on often without blinking)

Microsoft Internet Explorer "hangs" in an inexplicable way (e.g. the program window does not respond)

In 90% of symptoms are directly caused by faults in the software and hardware. If you think these symptoms are caused by a viral infection, perform a scan with the parameters recommended by the online technical support experts.

The main sources of threats are now Internet and e-mail. There are a multitude of malicious programs (such as viruses, Trojans, worms) that can penetrate your computer while reading an article on the internet or mail, browsing, open several pages, or downloading and installing software on your computer. The speed with which you distribute malware is enormous. The recovery of damage done by malware in a couple of seconds can claim a lot of resources. It is not just the loss of files, but not requested access to the system, its modification, or theft of data.

The other drawback is the generator of spam. Unsolicited email can cause more harm than malware. While spam is not a direct threat, leading to lost work time and serious additional costs. The size increases spending hundreds and thousands times when it comes to a corporate network.

Each user of modern information technology resources should understand what threats exist and what damage it can cause.

Among the more channels are used by malware:

Internet: The global network is the main source of distribution for all types of malware. In general, viruses and other malicious programs are placed on popular Web pages claiming some useful free software. Many of the scripts that run automatically when you open Web pages may also contain malware.

E-mail: The emails in private mailboxes and e-mail databases may contain viruses. Attachments and email body may contain malware. The main types of malware are distributed by e-mail viruses and worms. You can infect your computer when you open an email or save a file attachment. Email is also a source of spam and phishing. While spam is usually a waste of time, phishing is a method to steal confidential data (the number of credit card, for example).

Software vulnerabilities: Exploitation of vulnerabilities in software installed on the system is the method preferred by hackers. The vulnerabilities allow a hacker to establish a remote connection to your computer, and consequently their data, the data on your network, etc.

All types of portable storage units: External drives, CDs and floppy disks, flash drives. When you connect a laptop to your computer or start a file from there, you can infect your computer with malware and start distributing it involuntarily.