E-Threat

In order to fully understand the term, we will define the underlaying terms:The term “Social Engineering” is important to be mentioned first, because it is a tactic malware programmers use to trick users into infecting their computers or submit personal data. These techniques are mostly psychological manipulation.

1. Exploits are applications that make use of vulnerabilities in the software or operating system running on a computer in order to gain access or denial service to the machine. This is one of the spreading techniques used by malware to spread.

2. Malware (malicious software) are programs designed to infiltrate or damage computers without the owner'sconsent. The expression is a general term that means a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software. Malware are the evolution of computer viruses. It can be composed of more files or applications working together to reach a certain target. Malware can be infectious or parasitic, hidden (stealth, that hides it's presence) and/or form changing, also called polymorphic or metamorphic (in order to avoid detection by security software). Malware includes computer viruses, worms,trojan horses, rootkits,spyware,adware, and other malicious and unwanted software.

2.1 Viruses :can be considered the begging of malware evolution. Viruses are self reproducing applications of many forms, most of them infectious (infecting other applications and processes in order to spread and create damage or loss of data). The trend is diminishing though.

2.2 Worms :are applicationsthat don't infect other files. They spread by themselves using network shares, removable devices and Internet. Worms that spread through email are using mass mailing applications to do so. That's why most of the times mass mailers are considered part of a worm instead of a stand alone application.

2.2.1 Bots : are a collection of programs used in an automatized process (robots) controlled by a third party. They transform the users computer into so called “zombies”.

2.3 Trojans: are probably the most widely spread malware these days. As the name suggests “trojan horses”, they are something different then what they appear to be, in a malicious sense. The target of these threats are financial information, using computer resources and/or DOS by flooding (possible by having thousands of infected computers send little bits of information to another machine). Trojans are of the following types: Clicker, Downloader, Dropper, Flooder/Nuker/Spammer, Keylogger, Startpage, Dialer.

2.4 Backdoors : are “weaker” trojans. They do not have any functionality other than opening a door to a third party without the users consent. Through this communication channel users and/or malware applications can have access to the victims computer.

3. Rootkits are bundles of small programs developed to hide certain applications. In a normal definition of rootkit the word would be undetectable. Rootkits are not necessarily bad. It's important to understand that the term itself refers to a technology. There are many applications out there making use of rootkit technology to monitor or intercept computer activity and are considered completely legal. Take an employer monitoring an employees activity for example. Rootkits used by the “bad guys” however are like enemy spies. Once a successful infiltration has been committed, detection and removal is really hard. Many system administrators advise reinstallation of operating system.

4. Spyware is part of the malware class, however it is specifically used to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent.

Even though the term spyware suggests some sort of monitoring activity, the software's capabilities extend far beyond this simple task. Spyware programs can collect information, such as Internet surfing habits, system details, product registration keys, stored passwords and banking details but can also interfere with user control of the computer by installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity, accessing websites blindly that will download more harmful viruses, or diverting advertising revenue to a third party. Spyware can even change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and loss of Internet or other programs. A more formal classification of spyware would be the term: privacy-invasive software.

5. Adware (advertising-supported software) are programs that automatically play, display, and/or download advertising material to a computer (who's reading the EULA these days?). Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software. Software that pretends to do something but only gives you false warnings in order to buy it is also considered adware (for example: rogue anti-viruses/anti-spy).

6. Grayware (or greyware) is a general term for software that was not designed for malicious use but can be used as such. Grayware encompasses dialers, joke programs, remote access tools, and any other files and programs apart from all that is defined as malware.

7. Phishing (fishing – for information) is a criminal attempt to trick users into providing information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, duplicating the looks of a trustworthy website or electronic entity. PayPal, eBay and online banks are common targets. Phishing is carried out by e-mail, instant messaging and phone. It is an example of social engineering technique.

8. Pharming (pronounced farming) is a cracker's attack aiming to redirect a website's traffic to another, bogus website. Pharming can be conducted either by changing the hosts file on a victim’s computer (by use of malware and/or grayware), without the users consent, or by exploitation of a vulnerability in DNS server software. The term pharming is a word play on farming and phishing.

We do not consider spam e-mail as being an e-Threat, because it brings no actual harm to the users computer performance or experience!