Description of Virus/trojan/spyware/adware

Here is a description of a trojan, a virus, spyware & adware ... Hope this info. will be beneficial especially to newbies to computers.

Trojan Horse Programs
A Trojan horse program is not a virus. The key distinction between a virus and a Trojan horse program is that a Trojan horse program does not replicate itself; it only destroys information on the hard disk.

A Trojan horse program disguises itself as a legitimate program such as a game or utility. A Trojan horse program often looks and initially acts like a legitimate program, but once it is executed, it can destroy or scramble data. A Trojan horse program can contain viruses, but is not a virus itself.

The Aids Information, Twelve Tricks A and B, and Darth Vader programs are examples of Trojan horse programs.

Description of Computer Viruses

A computer virus is an executable file designed to replicate itself and avoid detection. A virus may try to avoid detection by disguising itself as a legitimate program. Viruses are often rewritten and adjusted so that they will not be detected. Anti-virus programs must be updated continuous- ly to look for new and modified viruses. Viruses are the number-one method of computer vandalism.

The first computer viruses were designed by programmers who wanted to show off their programming skills and to demonstrate how easily computer security systems could be infiltrated. Today, viruses are made to corrupt or scramble data on a computer's hard disk in the file allocation table (FAT), boot sector, data files, or program files.

There are over 5000 known viruses, and new virus strains continue to show up regularly. The rate of virus infection is also increasing.
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"Spyware is the name which was given to software that - without the user of the program knowing that the software performs this kind of action - traces the user's usage of the internet and send this information - again without the user knowing this is happening - to a computer ("Server") designated by the developer of the Spyware software.

"By performing these actions, detailed userprofiles may be collected - without the user's knowledge and approval - which then can be used for commercial or other purposes. By gathering and sending this information both resources on the user's computer as well as bandwidth on the Internet is abusively used, not to mention the breach of privacy such a userprofile would be."...
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ADWARE:
Of course it is ultimately the consumer's choice whether or not to install software that contains advertising modules or third party DLLs, and as long as a privacy policy clearly states what is expected from and what will be gathered from the user, before anything is installed, there can be no argument made for misuse. However, it is in the best interest of any consumer to try adware where the advertising is contained in files which are a part of the program and the program neither installs advertising modules that contact third parties nor gathers personal information, or try ad-free shareware instead by testing a trial version of a product for a specified period of time, then either agreeing to or declining the purchase of the product's software license after the trial period has expired. Since both the consumer and seller benefits from this arrangement the installation of advertising modules and/or the process of gathering personal information is unnecessary; but as long as advertising and/or the gathering of personal identifying information for marketing purposes and profit is a reality in today's internet and software world, we need the cooperation of all companies in protecting the privacy of all consumers.

 

What's a worm?

What's a keylogger?

What's a driveby download?

What's a homepage hijacker?

 

I think she covered her subject line here.