Threat Definitions

The following threats could present a serious impact to businesses including: Financial Loss, Disruption to Business, Denial of Service, Communications’ disruption, Annoyance, Negative Publicity & Client Reputation. It is vital that companies adopt an internet security policy backed up by strong and reliable protection software.

Malware

Short for malicious software is a generic term for software designed to infiltrate a computer or network without the owners consent and with the objective causing harm to software code or obtaining funds through fraudulent methods. Types of malware include, Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware and adware.

Viruses

A type of malware that propagates and becomes part of a program. A virus spreads between computers by e-mail, disks, network and file sharing methods leaving infections behind. Viruses range in severity from mild to extreme damaging data and causing denial of service. Almost all viruses are attached to executable files and are normally activated unintentionally by the computer user.

Worms

A computer worm is a self-replicating program. A worm will use e-mail or a computer network to send copies of itself without any user intervention. Worms do cause harm however unlike viruses they do not corrupt or modify files. Worm can take up significant network bandwidth.

Trojans

Like a worm a Trojan is a type of self-replicating malware that masks itself as a desirable computer function. A Trojan will remain dormant until activated by a schedule or a user. Trojans allow a hacker to remotely access a target computer to perform various actions like stealing data or limiting functionality.

Spyware

Collects information from users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is normally hidden from the user. Spyware such as key loggers are sometimes installed by the owner of a shared computer for the purpose of monitoring other users. Spyware collects information such as internet usage habits, slows machines performance and change computer home page settings.

Adware

A form of advertising through software. Adware automatically plays or displays without user intervention and is classed as privacy invasive software.