Computer Security
A Trojan horse… A Trojan horse… My Kingdom for a Trojan horse
Computer security is becoming a growing concern, with more and more computers getting connected to the internet every year the number of potential targets grows every year. In this paper we will discuss and evaluate the common threats associated with the internet and modern computing. The most common malicious software in the wild today on the net is: Adware, Malware, Virus’, Backdoors, Spyware, Worms and lastly Trojans.
A great amount of these threats can be eliminated just by taking simple steps: Such as running current anti-virus software, updating and using the current version of your operating system. Many of these threats occur because of lack of knowledge on the end users or just plain laziness.In today’s society with identity theft running rampant, there isn’t enough you can do as an end user to combat these threats. So be proactive and take steps to ensure you are protected.
Malware: This refers to “Malicious code”. In the early days virus was coined as a generic term now there are more specific definitions for each type of malicious software but basically the end result is the same. It performs malicious acts on the computer. The differences are in replication, delivery and so forth.
“Virus: A true virus is capable of self-replication on one machine. It may spread between files or disks, but the defining characteristic is that it can re-create itself on its own without traveling to a new host. Transmission time to a new host is relatively slow, on the order of days or weeks.” (Infoweek)
AdWare: This software will take information such as you surfing habits and send them back to a parent company. These types of software typically are not malicious to the internals of your computer. How ever they typically will allow a company to send you advertisements and other pop-ups to sell you stuff.
“Backdoors: A backdoor in a computer system is a method of bypassing normal authentication or securing remote access to a computer, while attempting to remain hidden from casual inspection. The backdoor may take the form of an installed program (e.g., Back Orifice), or could be a modification to a legitimate program.” (Wiki)
Spyware is a growing menace in today’s fast paced computing world. Spyware falls into the same family of software as malware, adware, and other “ware” type software that we have all come to know as a nuisance. Spyware as we know it fist came around in 1999. Anyone who has surfed the world wide web has encountered spyware of some sort.
In fact, a study taken by America Online and the National Cyber-Security Alliance concluded that around 80% of the computers connected to the internet are infected with some form of spyware, and of that 80% of computers that are infected, 89% of the computers’ uses did not know that their systems were infected.
Spyware works by infecting a computer with a program that spies on that computer, hence the term spyware. By that definition many might think that spyware is a hacker tool uses to steal sensitive information, and it very well could be used to do that. However, spyware is mainly used to track a computer user’s browsing habits and works along with adware to bombard the user with advertisements focused on that user’s interests in the form of pop-ups, toolbars, and other flashy shenanigans that might attract a user’s attention.
Spyware often disguises itself as something that could be helpful in your browsing experience, but actually turns out to have a negative effect, one common tool spyware disguises itself as is a toolbar. Spyware has an ingenious way of installing itself in a computer, the user must accept the installation or install the software themselves. Most naive internet uses will just click away while browsing and install all kinds of programs and tweaks, unfortunately most of these programs turn out to be spyware, and since the user agrees to install the program spyware is considered a legitimate way of advertising.
About the same time spyware came on the internet scene, so did programs to combat it.
The most comprehensive tool on the internet to get rid of spyware is a program by Lavasys called Ad-Aware, which detects and removes all sorts of spyware, malware, and any other kinds of negative “wares” inside a computer. There is even more help coming to the internet uses from an unexpected source, the government. House Resolution 2929, is an anti spy act that would make many of the tactics used by spyware to infect a computer illegal. In the future of internet surfing, web junkies can only hope that more will be done to rid the world wide web of the evils of spyware.
Computer Trojans By definition is a computer program that contains or installs malicious software. A Trojan for the computer is the same as the Trojan horse. The two have many qualities in common they deceive the user by hiding its true identity, they both can pose as something they are not and they two are harmful.
Computer Trojans can be broken down into two groups. The first common scenario is a useful program has been compromised by having a malicious code inserted and when the program is launched it then have its adverse affects. The next is a Trojan standalone program posing as a game, image file or an executable. The key is to trick the user into by misdirected and running the Trojan program to run the malicious program.
Trojan can bring a computer to its figurative knees in a matter of minutes or seconds. There are common ways to prevent this from happening. First a anti-virus program that is kept up to date to defend at its fullest. If on a windows computer update the computer regularly with windows update. Finally the last safeguard is a hefty firewall to block malicious software compromising the computer system.
Many threats are dependent on the internet in order to spread. One of the most prominent security problems are worms. Worms are programs, often with malicious intent, designed to be self sufficient in their proliferation. Once a worm is released, it is able to select its own target, and actively try to exploit neighboring machines, without any user intervention. This is the key to how a worm works, and it is also its defining characteristic which differentiates it from a virus or spyware. Once a worm is released, it infects other machines, which in turn infect even more machines and so on. Because of this, worm infections often grow very rapidly, often in an exponential fashion.
One well known example was the Slammer worm, which “within the first 24 hours of Slammer’s release, the worm had infected at least 120,000 hosts and caused networks outages and the disruption of airline flights, elections, and ATMs” (Conklin 6). Yet another example was the Code Red worm, which “conquered 250,000 systems in less than nine hours” (Skoudis).
These properties of worms are what make them so popular with attackers, since they can cause major damage in a relatively short time period. Worms weren’t always something to be feared, in fact “worms were first used as a legitimate mechanism for performing tasks in a distributed environment”, and in this way, they were designed to be helpful in nature (History of Worms). Today, the problems that worms cause far outweigh their beneficial applications. Worms are dangerous because they are hard to stop, which has prompted companies like Symantec and McAfee to incorporate features into their software which inhibit a worm’s ability to spread.
Remember a Wiseman once said “Never look gift horse in the mouth”. Take what you will from this paper but consider this our gift to you and that ultimately you and only you are responsible for your own actions, be proactive and keep your computer safe and secure. In today’s society of thugs, bandits and hoodlums the one that gets access to any personal information can wreak more havoc on your life than the Trojan horse did on Troy. It’s not about the guy on the street corner waiting to knife you, in today’s world if you don’t keep your computers’ safe guards updated and in place you may as well invite the thief over to dinner and hand him your wallet and withdraw your money and pay him to leave.
In all seriousness though you can never take the security on your computer too lightly, download the current anti-virus updates, Windows updates and always be leery about any programs you allow to access the Internet through your firewalls. Run software like Ad-Aware and Spybot search and destroy regularly as well as your anti-virus software.
On a side note, for those of you had less than honorable intentions by reading this material you will have to continue your pursuit of the “Dark Side” else where–Young Jedi.
Here are some recommended security products to help keep you safe.
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