Last update April 25, 2023 at 07:19 AM
We will talk about malware and anti-malware in this post. What are they ? good guys, bad guys for our system? That's what we are going to see.
Not long ago, I confused virus and malware. I thought they were the same, actually not. They are different.
After reading this post, you will really know what malware is, and how antimalware is important and sometimes different from antivirus.
Anti-malware is software designed to prevent or remove malicious software called malware.
To better inform you, we will start by defining what malware really is and how it differs from computer viruses.
Next, we will go into the details of what anti-malware is.
What is malware first?
Malware is programs designed to cause harm to our computer systems.
It can be malicious software intended to destroy or compromise computer systems. This malware can also be developed to steal personal information.
These types of software usually run in the background of course without the knowledge and/or permission of their victims.
What makes malware a dangerous threat to our machines and computing environments is that they quickly adapt to changes in computer systems.
This behavior makes them difficult to detect.
To cite a few examples of malware to easily locate you, there are worms, spyware (also called spyware) and adware (also called adware).
Examples of malware
Trojan horses also called Trojan
These are malware designed to create vulnerabilities in computer systems. Most often it is to allow their designer to break into the infected system to take control of it.
Hoaxes (hoaxes)
Hoaxes or hoaxes can be announcements received by email that encourage people to share information with their relatives.
For example, we can announce the appearance of a new destructive virus or the possibility of winning a mobile phone for free, accompanied by a notes specifying to forward the news to all his relatives.
The purpose of this process is to clog the networks as well as disinformation.
Yes, malware can spread Fake News.
Ransomware
It is a malicious software that blocks access to your machine's system and demands a ransom from you in order to unblock it.
Generally it is not complex for a connoisseur to unlock his computer without paying. However, a type of ransomware called cryptovirology encrypts the victim's files using a secret key without which it is impossible to decrypt the files.
This type of ransomware offers to provide file decryption key in exchange for some amount of money. More often than not, bitcoin is widely used.
Adware or adware
Like the definition of its name, this virus bombards you with advertisements. It's now more common in smartphones than PCs.
Most often, we see in our phones ads appearing outside of applications and it is difficult to find the source of this one.
Don't forget that malware can work with one or more operating modes mentioned above.
That is to say that an adware can work like a trojan horse. A worm virus can function as a logic bomb.
macro viruses
These are viruses programmed only to attack the Microsoft Office suite. Our virus is programmed in vba to modify the code of the macros of the suite and cause them to malfunction.
According to wikipedia, this virus is the easiest to program. So be careful when you enable macros in Microsoft Excel, it's not for nothing that they are disabled by default.
Viruses-worms
These are computer viruses that embed themselves in programs and multiply ad infinitum in internet networks.
This type of virus generally does not destroy machines (at least initially) but reduces the performance of computers and infected machines.
Boot viruses or boot sectors
This type of malware likes to attack storage media rather than digital files. They replace every memory block in the computer with whatever. The worst thing is that this type of virus is difficult to destroy.
Why ? Because a simple formatting of the support will not make it leave and the difficulty worsens if this virus is in the MBR of your machine.
For your information, the MBR (master boot record) is system software that allows you to launch your operating system (microsoft, linux or OSX) when the computer starts up.
logic bombs
CThese are viruses that are triggered by a specific event.
For example on Valentine's Day, almost everyone who turns on their pc sees this text “you're going to hate me in 3 seconds” displayed. After 3 seconds your pc shuts down.
It actually happened.
You have certainly noticed that some malware are called viruses. Malware and a computer virus are (a bit) different. The difference lies mainly in their operating methods.
What is the difference between a computer virus and malware?
A computer virus is a program capable of duplicating itself, installing itself without the knowledge of its victim and performing the tasks for which it is programmed. Its behavior is similar to biological viruses.
Computer viruses are all malware, but malware may not be viruses.
The most important difference between virus and malware is in the ability of the program to multiply.
Malware means any software that does harm in your system in stealth. If this software has the ability to duplicate itself, it is immediately a computer virus.
I hope you have understood the difference between a computer virus and malware so far.
To protect your system from malware, you need special software called anti-malware.
What are anti-malware?
Anti-malware is a program designed to protect your computer environment against attacks by malware such as worms, spyware and all forms of malicious programs.
The way an anti-malware works allows this software to protect computer systems against any new or complex intrusion.
Not to be confused with antivirus whose objectives is to scan and treat a machine already infected with viruses or other malicious software.
In the rest of our section, I offer you a list of free anti-malware software that you can try.
List of free anti-malware software
Today There are more and more antivirus programs that include anti-malware functions and less and less software, which is called “anti-malware” even though it has these functions.
TOTAL AV
SCAN GUARD
Avast
Malwarebytes
PC PROTECT
AVG Free Antivirus
