How to Protect Your Computer Systems from Viruses, Worms, Spyware and Malware

The number of malicious threats aimed at your computer networks and data have increased dramatically. These threats can cause major losses in productivity and can have a major impact on your company's profitability. There are four main types of computer viruses or threats: malware, spyware, phishing, and spam.

 Malware
This category includes viruses, worms and trojan horses. Basically, these are computer programs written by malicious operators that enter your system when you open email attachments, visit websites, during open instant messaging sessions or during file-sharing sessions. Malware hijacks your computer and uses it for malicious activities. Worms describe a program that attempts to replicate itself from computer to computer. Trojans disguise themselves as beneficial programs to gain entry into your computer. You typically will never know that you have malware on your machines until you begin to experience system degradations or crashes, if even then.

 Spyware
Spyware comes from sources similar to malware, but with a different intent. Spyware are programs that have taken a place on your computer system and are monitoring all your activities. Their goal is to capture personal data (passwords, financial data, etc.) and transmit that data (without your knowledge) back over the internet to a malicious source.

 Phishing
Phishing is the name for fraudulent proposals that exploit the internet as a communication channel to easily reach a large number of targets. You may receive emails saying "you've won a prize", or "urgent: second contact attempt", all asking for an immediate reply. It is just good common sense to ignore these types of fraudulent communcation, no matter the source.

 Spam
Spam is any unsolicited communication received electronically. Typically, we think of email, but instant messaging can also be a source of spam. Spam can be an entry point for spyware or malware.

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