Advanced Computer Technology

Not all software is designed with the user in mind. Malware (a mix of the words MALicious and softWARE) is software secretly designed to damage or disrupt a computer system. Malware is a general term used to mean any program code that is hostile, intrusive, or annoying.

All malware attacks are designed to target one of three functions:

1. confidentiality (stealing data)
2. integrity (damaging data)
3. accessibility (making data inaccessible)

Just remember CIA...confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility. If I were you, I would memorize these!!

Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware, adware, crimeware, bots and more.

Use the following flash card example to learn about each different type of malware:



**Once enough Bots have spread throughout the internet, (computers infected with Bots are called zombies) the Botnet uses all of the computers to attack a single target, overwhelming it with data. This is callled a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.

Today, there is more malware than ever. In fact, according to F-Secure (a computer security company), "as much malware was produced in 2007 as in the previous 20 years altogether."