Malware and computer system - Essay Example

?TECHNICAL REPORT College This is a report about malware that specifically reflects on the problems that was faced due to the malware that attacked our computer system. This report closely looks at the malware one by one concentrating specifically on the problems that they caused in a time frame of twenty four hours. Computer malware can be sometime very disturbing not only to the proper operation of a computer system but also to the computer user. Being that most of this malware are intentional crafted in order to have some fishy benefits to those involved it should be noted with a lot of concerned that some of these malware are so unavoidable since they are not only easy to come by through storage devices but they can also easily be found over the internet(Skoudis & Zeltser, 2004). These malware come in very many forms and with them come different effects to the computer which in turn will be very disturbing to the computer user. Introduction Malware is every computer owner nightmare due to the known effects that come with them. The name malware which owe its derivation from the two names malicious and software has universally been used to refer to these softwares. This malicious software can be thought of us a program that is specifically created by someone who intendeds to disrupts normal operation of the computer. Some of these malware are intended to gather sensitive information from the computer or with the intention of accessing the private computer system. The history of these computer malware date back to as early as 1986 when the first computer malware was made for PC by the two Pakistani brothers. Since then there has been so many advances as far as the malware are concerned from the then window malware which had the mail worms and the macro worms. Later there was the network warms that came through the internet then finally new malware like the rootkit and ransomware were to be found in the computer systems in the later years. Today malware include the computer viruses, ransomware, worms, rootkit, keyloggers, dialers, spyware, adware, malicious BHOs and Trojan horses (Skoudis & Zeltser, 2004). Body of the Report During the last twenty four hours our computer experts have be up to task due to the so many computer malware that have been detected and has thus given us a hell of trouble as far as the function ability of the computers systems are concerned. To begin with our experts have had to deal with the menace of computer virus, computer worms, rootkits and ransomware, spyware and backdoor malwares (Christodorescu, 2006). Computer virus During the last twenty four hours one of the malware that has really given our Information Technology experts a lot of headache is the computer virus. A computer virus can be said to be a malware that harms the computer by spreading within the infected files and this has to be with the aid of other software since it is only during the time of program execution when the code is executed. Specifically our computer system was under attack by the so called Randex which is a computer virus that falls under the memory resident virus affected all the file that were being opened by the user of the computer. It was so hard to deal with this virus since it was specifically located in the RAM of the computer. The computer user subsequently lost control of the system memory to this virus that then was later responsible for the corruption of the many programs that the user was trying to open. In most case the virus not only closed programs that had already opened but also made multiples of copies for the files in the memory and even renamed most of the files thus grounding the user as far as the use of the computer is concerned. Computer worms Secondly, our experts had so much difficulty in dealing with the computer worms that were detected in the computer system. Computer worms can be thought of as the malware that act independently and thus must not attach itself to computer software in order to affect a file. Most of these worms work by redesigning the host operating system in a way that favors their existence so that they start simultaneously with the boot process. One of the worms that our system face were the Internet worms specifically the code red. This virus affected our system due its scanning algorithm that scans for network and this gave a big problem to our private IP address. Due to our unpatched platform the worms gained access to our computer. It then leads to an increase in the payload thus making our servers to crumble. This was made possible by the fact that it was able to disguise itself and stay safe from the defending mechanism (Christodorescu, 2006). Rootkits and ransomware Our computer system in the last twenty four hours have also face so much difficulty as far its operation is concerned due to the attacks by the rootkit malwares. Rootkit malware can be referred to as software that are intentionally created to modify the operating system of a computer system so that the person responsible for the rootkit can have an remote access to a computer system and stay unidentified by the user of the computer system. This rootkit that specifically gave us a lot of trouble was the mebroot which we believe must have attacked our system over the internet. This rootkit malware was particularly a big headache since even our rootkit detectors could not pick its presences. Mebroot was actually responsible for the alterations of the our systems binary executables and even our system library thus gaining access to send information like what the user is typing to the attacker and we believe someone had the same intentions too. This malware almost brought our system down since ours system was hanging for almost three hours thus putting our operations to a stop (Skoudis & Zeltser, 2004). On the other hand the ransomware also caused bit of headache to our system this because the hard disk of our computer system had been crypted such that we lost control of our system. We believe that this attack might have been executed over the internet and though some files like the PDF files that prompted one to download and install the file. Subsequently this malware totally change the background of our computer system and a notification that demanded that we decrypt our system with a key that had to be paid for (Skoudis & Zeltser, 2004). Spyware Our computer system also faced so various attacks from Trojan horse. This can be described as malicious software that is able to change their form and disguise themselves as one of the computer files so that they cannot be detected by programs like antivirus. These programs are usually installed by the computer user without knowing since they usually appear like they are not of malicious intent. This Trojan horse made most of our file to be deleted making us lose so many of our vital files. This malware also led to the installation of other harmful software (Aycock, 2006). Backdoor Lastly, over the last twenty four hours our system have also faced attacks from malware know as the backdoor. This can be described as software that is intentionally crafted to grant access to other person’s computer system without going through the usual authentication procedures. This malware was a big headache to our system experts since every time our system were booting this programs were also starting. This in turn led to a decrease in our computer system speed (Christodorescu, 2006). Conclusion It is said that every good thing comes with its own problems and surely the menace of malware will forever be a big problem to computer systems. Taking for example malwares like the viruses, the rootkit, backdoor, spyware and the ransomware that we had to deal with were surely a big problem to the normal operation of the computer systems. Thus in every good computer system so many actions should be taken to safe guard the computer system. It is therefore advisable that whenever one thinks of buying or owning a computer then he should be able to reflect on its safety and put the relevant safety measures in order to be free of such attacks. One of the methods that can be used to keep one computer system from being attacked by some of this malware is for example having up-to-date antivirus software which can be able to deal with most of malware (Aycock, 2006). One can also be very cautious especially when they are browsing over the internet. This can be achieved by avoiding any suspicious looking command or site. People should always avoid downloading software programs that they doubt or they are not sure of there if they are authentic. It is only with this that we can keep our computer systems from being attacked by these renounced malware (Aycock, 2006). References (Aycock, J. D. (2006). Computer viruses and malware. New York: Springer. Christodorescu, M. (2006). Malware detection. New York: Springer. Skoudis, E., & Zeltser, L. (2004). Malware: fighting malicious code. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR. Read More