Viral-ware, a program written to behave like that of viral-cells, or virus. Like the viruses do, most common viral-wares seek out a certain area of the software installed on a computer system. However, there are different types of viral-wares and each type has its own uniqueness, characteristics, abilities and main purpose. These types of programs are also known as "Malware", malicious-ware in short.
Computer Virus: First introduced in 1984. The most common viral-ware found in infected computers and on the cyberspace in the world until 2000, when Spywares began to surface and spread faster than computer viruses could ever do through porn sites and illegal sites. Computer viruses were specifically written with a single main purpose-to destroy a computer system. Most computer viruses were designed to sabotage MicroSoft Windows OperatingSystems, a warfare against MicroSoft’s monoply status. While most of the viruses attack the software in a computer, there are some viruses that were designed to damage computer hardware as well. And these, are real killers. The virus that attack the software are software-resident, meaning they reside within the software structures and/or an operating system’s system files. This type of computer virus may be removed by an effective Anti-Virus program depending on how deep the computer is infected. However, a virus-infected Operating System requires a fresh install to ensure stability, security and integrity. On the other hand, the virus that attacks the hardware of a computer, cannot be removed. This type of virus resides within a certain chip, mostly the memory chips. Once it completes its resident status, it begins its attacks upon the targeted hardware. In most cases, the hard drive sectors and/or motherboard BIOS chip/chipset. And when the attacks begin, it is impossible to stop and the targeted hardware will be rendered useless.
File extentions associated with computer virus: .exe; .bat; .com; .reg; .jpg; .gif
Computer Worm: A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computer terminals on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms always harm the network (if only by consuming bandwidth), whereas viruses always infect or corrupt files on a targeted computer. There are 4 types of Computer Worms, the Email Worms; iRC Worms; Instant-Message Worms and Internet Worms. A good example of Internet Worms is the MS.Blaster32 Worm which targets low level TCP/IP ports directly, rather than going via higher level protocols such as email or IRC. It’s a classic example which exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft’s RPC(Remote Procedure Call). An infected machine aggressively scans random computers on both its local network and the public Internet attempting an exploit against port 135 which, if successful, spreads the worm to that machine.
File extentions associated with Computer Worms: .exe; .bat; .com; .dat; .dll; .reg; .log; .ini; .sys; .net; .doc; .txt; .htm
Trojan-Horse: The name says it all. This type of malware was desgined to open one or more backdoors on your computer’s Operating System configuration, and a lot of anti-virus programs cannot pick up its presence because it has a way of fooling the anti-virus programs into believing it to be a legitimate ware. This means that once your computer is infected by it, it will open up unused, vulnerable internet ports on your system which allows whoever unleashed it, to access your Operating System without you knowing it. When this happens, the intruder can then change your Windows User Account settings and network settings to his advantage, he can then download more malwares on to your computer and you will not be able to stop them.
File extentions associated with trojan horse: .dll; .txt; .doc; .reg; .exe; .reg; .tmp; .bak;
Spyware: Stubborn malwares that will keep coming back no matter what you do. Most anti-virus programs are unable to pick up spywares because of their coding strings and patterns, and also different viral structure. Spywares were first introduced by Internet Advertising Firms to track internet users’ web surfing habits and also to generate more hits for the the companies that pay for their advertisements. Spread rapidly through porn sites and sites that post illegal materials such as Underground Warez sites that provide cracks/serial keys to illegal copies of software and programs, or sites that offer freebies. When you enter one of those sites, a series of html/java/ActiveX codes are being executed from the website’s backend system and exploit the loopholes found inside Internet Explorer then on to your computer. Firewalls cannot prevent this because when you visit the site, your computer is already connected to its server that’s why you can view the site! Seeing the flexibility and abilities of spywares, cybercrooks began re-writing the codes and came out with even more lethal versions of spywares that can damage Operating Systems, associated software/programs, memory, and hijack your system. Spywares are very difficult to remove because of their viral behavior patterns. They’re both software and hardware resident which reside in Windows’ Registry, OS File System, Windows Processes, Restore Points, Disk Volume Information System, Rootkits, Backup Folders, User Account Keys, Network HOST file, Network Protocols and Internet Explorer’s program structure, as well as System Memory and Virtual Memory. Many spywares nowadays include "Key-loggers", used to record your key-strokes–meaning it can record whatever you type on your keyboard, and record the site that you’re visiting which maybe your Online Banking, eBay/Paypal Account..etc. and then it sends every bit of information you entered to the person that planted the spyware. Don’t be surprised to see your next month’s credit card bill came with maxed out credit line, or missing 0′s in your bank account, it may very well mean that your computer is infected with a series of spywares–and you won’t ever know. Symptoms include greatly reduced performance, slow internet connection, pop-ups, hijacked IE homepage, non-stop redirection of search results, as well as series of errors in Windows and prevention of the installation of Windows Updates, new drivers, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.
File extentions associated with Spyware: .dll; .reg; .exe; .ex_; .bak; .txt; .000; .ini; .sys; .mp3; .dat
Rogue Anti-Spyware: Fake anti-spyware programs which are really spywares themselves. These are downloaded along with trojan horses/spywares and when installed, them will run fake scans and then give fake results telling you that you’re infected with spywares, follow by asking you to purchase the full version of their programs in order to remove all the infections. When you click "OK" or any given links, more spywares get downloaded on to your computer and if you buy the programs as they tell you, be prepared to see your next credit card bill. Viral patterns are same or very similar to Spywares.
File extentions associated with Rogue Anti-Spyware: .exe; .dll; .com; .reg; .bak; .000; .sys; .ini; .tmp; .dat
