The Struggle Against Current Malware

There are many great minds who could apply their talents and considerable capabilities for a noble cause within an organization. Unfortunately these minds have chosen a path of creating malicious software applications, direct it toward him attacks are personal and professional information, financial online bank accounts, and other related intrusions. A year ago it has been estimated there are greater than twenty five million unequaled and unparalleled types of malware applications that have been identified. This does not include the number that has yet to be discovered. With this figure, malware outnumbers the amount of actual real and legitimate software applications by a huge factor.

One would imagine that public vendors such as Amazon or Google or maybe even Microsoft may hold the distinction of possessing the largest cloud computing utilization. It may shock you to discover the botnet named Conficker is the winner, infecting just under five million computer systems all across the globe. Antivirus and anti-malware suppliers and manufacturers state that almost half of the systems they operate on and scan contain some sort of malware infection. Trojan malware is responsible for more than 66% of infestation. A large amount of identity theft is derived from malware, also the transfer of financial funds, usernames and passwords that are stolen, and the theft of information. As a staggering figure millions and millions of finances are taken from Internet users.

When computers and systems first hit the scene, hacking was done mainly to brag about your talents and the various sites you broke into. Harmless in nature, it was done as a badge of honor among your peers. Now cyber criminals and other professionals use malicious software as a means of financial gain. Users click on an unsuspecting link leading to a malicious site, answer spam that executes a Trojan, or becomes infected through videos and audio files embedded in e-mails and their social networking account. Sometimes users are duped into installing software because a website told them their computing system was infected and they need to download the advertise software as a way of eradicating the malicious applications. JavaScript is another favored method of hackers as it is used to redirect a user to a website that may appear to be a legitimate one but in truth is a malware site. The user is prompted to install a software application, which ends up being malware that runs in the background.

Trojans are well known to be utilized to download some sort of false antivirus application, a security fix or patch, a PDF file that has been maliciously edited, or some sort of plug-in necessary to watch a video. Recently social networks have been used to repopulate and pass around the disguised malware. Users cause their own misery by missing the telltale warning signs of a website that appears to be a trusted site they always visit, and install applications for no other reason than a message on the webpage told them to do so. It is this type of social engineering that equals the most success.

In many applications the first piece that is installed successfully places itself within a computing system. It then sends a message back to the originating system or server and gains additional instructions. Once it obtains the domain name server and location it redirects itself to another compromised system, downloads more applications or instructions and repeats the cycle over and over again, jumping from one system to the next. When this action has been repeated many, many times, final instructions are placed on the computing system of the victim where control and command botnets perform the actual theft of information or finances. They also gain access to other computing systems or perform denial of service operations. Cyber criminals have also been known to rent their botnet to other hackers and criminals. The botnet called Mariposa has been known to contain greater than thirteen million systems in more than one hundred ninety different countries.

There actually exists malware utilities where you can create your own malware application, and these utilities are very sophisticated as well as efficient in what they do. These utilities can be customized and create malware that is very difficult to detect. An amount of programming knowledge is not required, as all it takes is a bit of reading and checking off boxes with various options. Before you know it the piece of malware has been created to gain access into a webpage or site, begin an infestation, deliver spam, create phishing schemes, and develop domain name servers, primary Web servers, and servers of a control and command nature. Many of these malware utilities have the ability to gain access past authentication as well as target certain organizations. These utilities are so sophisticated that even keep track of various statistics such as how many systems have been infected, what type of operating system has been infected, and the method used to gain access. For an additional fee, the creators of the malware utilities actually provide all around the clock, seven days a week technical support.

It is for this reason a well designed and comprehensive CISSP online training course must be a requirement of organizations and enterprises containing sensitive information or finances. It is through a greater sense of knowledge in security awareness businesses will gain some sort of advantage over those seeking to perform malicious harm or theft. K Alliance provides the best in information security certification training.

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