What is Malware

Malware is a name derived from the two terms, Malicious Software.  As the name states, it is malicious in nature and is one of the most common forms of software designed to attack a computer in a multitude of ways. 

Malware is in fact a type of Virus that infects your computer without your consent and most of the time without your knowledge.  Most antivirus programs in fact are unable to detect Malware so in turn it is much easier to be infected.  The purpose of this type of software is to disable your computer, steal personal information, redirect your computer to sites which are very harmful to your computer as well as a countless other damaging effects that make using your computer nothing more than a Pain In The Butt.


For businesses Malware can be very costly, disruptive, and a huge threat to consumers private information, as described below, this is a very short definition.
"The prevalence of malware as a vehicle for organized Internet crime, along with the general inability of traditional anti-malware protection platforms to protect against the continuous stream of unique and newly produced professional malware, has seen the adoption of a new mindset for businesses operating on the Internet - the acknowledgment that some sizable percentage of Internet customers will always be infected for some reason or other, and that they need to continue doing business with infected customers. The result is a greater emphasis on back-office systems designed to spot fraudulent activities associated with advanced malware operating on customers computers".  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware

Malware has many faces, however the most important one in my personal opinion is that it is widely spread, very easy to infect your computer, and can be a host of many harmful other problems to your computer such as viruses & spyware.  Malware is known to also be a culprit in the evergrowing IDENTITY THEFT epedemic and can prove to be extremley damaging to your personal life, your credit & much more.

There are a multitude of Malware For Profit programs out their as well which infect your computer and than take you to a site offering to solve your problems by way of selling you a software program to fix your infections.  Unfortunately, if you have been directed to any site that states your computer is infected with a number of viruses or any message that is similar, in fact your computer has just been redirected and infected and the program they are trying to have you pay for and download is a fake program and will actualy infect your computer.

Most of us spend an average of $100 a year to purchase antivirus programs and related programs to protect our computers.  However a majority of them fall short of being able to detect Malware and the websites which harbor them.  There is no program out there that is 100% effective and most of the large antivirus programs such as (Norto, or Macfee) are an after the fact type of protection.  If you have had any of these programs and have been infected, you know that they charge you additional fees to remove certain viruse, malware & spyware from your computers, on top of the yearly fees that they charge.  Although they can be effective to a certain degree, again there is no 100% effective software, nor will there ever be due to the nature of Viruses & Malware, the Anti-Virus company's are always one step behind the culprits and have to create fixes for the newly created problems.

So either way you look at it, if you are a avid computer user the chances of you getting infected these days by Malware is probably very high.  You might be asking yourself what you could do at the moment, and I don't blame you.  I am not trying to scare you, or have you cancel your Anti-Virus subscriptions, rather trying to educate you by way of personal knowledge & experience.  So heed the warnings & recommendations below.

If you cruise the internet like I do on a daily basis these are the precautions you need to take in order to protect your computer, your personal files & information, and most importantly your Identity.

1- Download or Purchase a Internet Security Program that offers real time protection, here are a couple that I as well as many other professionals recommend, and you can go to the following site before hand and read Professional reviews as well as consumer reviews.  I also highly recommend the site below for reviews on anything technology related, I have used their site for almost 10 years now and live and operate my Computer Services business by their reviews.
http://reviews.cnet.com/

http://download.cnet.com/2701-2023_4-6-1.html?tag=rb_shell;prefoot

2- Make sure to do the following on your computer if it already has not been done so, Enable Your Firewall, Enable Phishing Filter, Make Sure to do Antivirus Updates Daily, Enable or Install a Anti-Malware program on your computer as well as a Anti-Spyware program.

3- Be very careful and vigilant about the sites you visit, the things you download and any and all email attachments that you download.  Also make sure to have a normal schedule where you run your antivirus programs and all other mentioned programs.

If you have any questions, comments, or need any help please feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to help.