The true dangers of malware   by Sarah H

in Computers / Malware    (submitted 2010-08-04)

Being infected by malware or spyware can cause major issues for your computer and your data. It's important that you stay protected against the darker side of the internet but just in case you're unsure of the real risks I'm going to go over the most common issues that occur with malware infections..

Key loggers - Key loggers can be seriously bad news; they basically log every key stroke that you perform and then send them back to a central malware server. The logs are then analysed to look for when you visited major websites like PayPal, eBay and the most common banks. If this happened then chances are you logged in and the malware server will have records of your username and passwords. I don't even need to tell you what can happen next but the results can be disastrous which makes key loggers probably the worst form of malware you can get infected by..

Search engine hijacking - More of an annoyance than anything else, these little pests will hijack your search results and usually when clicking on of you will be redirected to a totally different page that usually servers no useful content at all. These often sit low down within the operating system and can be very tricky to detect and get rid of. A good anti malware program should get rid of most kinds of this however. You can check out my stopzilla review for a very effective anti malware solution.

Click jacking and auto submitters - These are usually completely transparent to the user and will perform websites click in the background or form submission. The idea behind it is that the advertisers who pay for the malware to be installed will receive revenue from the clicks made. These are very immoral and are damaging to legitimate advertisers on the internet..

Root kits - These come in many flavours but their general purpose is to reside deep down within the operating system making them very hard to find. They usually infect a common system file or device driver and therefore very rarely raise suspicion. Once installed they can have full access over your machine and are usually used to download and install further malware..

Fake anti viruses - Probably the most common and most annoying form of malware there is. These will harass you with popups claiming your machine is infected by various viruses and that the software can clean them for you providing you pay a lump sum. This is a very lucrative market for hackers and fraudsters and there is a lot of money made for them. If you come across one of these make sure you NEVER pay for the software.


All the above are common and I have encountered them all, if you do come across any of these then ensure you can a good anti malware program such as STOPzilla and run a full scan whilst in safe mode.

About the Author

A tech support expert who specialises dealing with Malware. Read my stopzilla review for a look at the best anti malware solution on the market.