Do You Know What Malware Is?
Most people do not know what malware is. They hear about viruses all the time, but often most computer related issues are due to malware.
Malware is software that is intended to track, damage or disable computers and computer systems.
How does it get onto your computer?
Well there’s a variety of ways:
- Social engineering – these are tactics the hackers devise to either push your fear or excitement buttons. For example, they can put malware on your computer that is obvious to you, and then offer you the solution to fix it if you buy their XYZ anti virus removal product. This is called “scareware.”
- Or they may tease you with a video and then tell you that you need to download this video viewer in order to watch it.
- They can offer you a free prize for filling out a form online. Everyone loves something for free and most people will click on it.
- Malware can even be inserted into the code of a well known website and if the company isn’t protected, anyone who comes to that site will be infected.
- They use emotional responses to entice you to click on their malware using images or words they know will emotionally connect to your feelings or brain.
- You install malware software such as screensavers, toolbars, or even torrents that you didn’t scan for viruses.
- When installing a so called “reputable” application, these companies often become greedy and allow crapware to be bundled with their software. Yes you can uncheck the option to install it, but most people don’t even know it’s going to be installed on their computer or even know there is a way to uncheck the box so it doesn’t get installed.
- Or the software can give you the option of clicking “Decline” but it STILL allows the installation of malware to proceed.
Once you’ve been infected, the malware installs even more malware.
If you aren’t using a quality Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware application like Malwarebytes, the odds of you getting infected increase.
I’ve been using MalwareBytes for years, and I make sure I have it on all my computers. It’s a very well known anti malware program I do recommend and they just came out with version 3.0 with zero day and ransomware protection.
