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  1. Jan 2021
    1. 2. Worms A worm is similar to a virus; the difference is that worms spread on their own instead of attaching to a program and infecting it and others. A lot of the time, worms spread over a network, exploiting a vulnerability to jump from machine to machine. As they continue to recursively spread, worms infect machines at a faster rate. This wastes the network's bandwidth at a minimum, while nastier worms can spread ransomware or other problems across an entire business network.

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    2. 10. Exploits and Vulnerabilities While not a form of malware, exploits and vulnerabilities are important terms in online security. Because no programmer or software is perfect, every program, OS, and website has some kind of vulnerability. Malicious actors work to find these flaws so they can exploit them to run malware or similar. advertising function refreshcontentwordcount9(){ if(contentwordcount9Changed == 'false'){ googletag.cmd.push(function(){ googletag.pubads().refresh([contentwordcount9]); googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1555342976270-7'); }); contentwordcount9Changed = 'true'; }; }; For example, say someone discovered a bug that let you create a new admin account with no password in Windows by following certain steps. Someone could write malware to run these steps on someone's PC, get admin access, and then wreak havoc. The best way to stay safe from these threats is keeping your OS and all software up-to-date. Developers patch these problems as they find them, so staying on the latest version keeps you safe from old and known exploits.

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    3. 8. Rootkit A rootkit (a term which merges the admin "root" account on Unix systems and the "kit" they use) is a type of malware that gains access to restricted parts of a computer and then disguises or otherwise hides itself. Typically, a rootkit gets installed when the attacker has admin (or root) access to a machine. Once the rootkit is installed, it has privileges to do whatever the owner wants on the system. Rootkits abuse this to hide their intrusion—for example, it might cloak its presence from the installed antivirus app. Obviously, a piece of malware having complete control over your system is quite dangerous. A lot of the time, you'll have to completely reinstall the OS to get rid of a rootkit.

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    4. 5. Spyware Spyware is another type of malware that can take several forms. It refers to programs that track your computer usage for some purpose and reports it back to an entity. Most programs—and even operating systems like Windows 10—collect data about your usage and report it back to the developer. They use this to improve their tools with real-world data. Proper spyware is distinguished by the fact that it collects this data without letting the user know. advertising function refreshcontentwordcount5(){ if(contentwordcount5Changed == 'false'){ googletag.cmd.push(function(){ googletag.pubads().refresh([contentwordcount5]); googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1555342976270-3'); }); contentwordcount5Changed = 'true'; }; }; While spyware often collects your data for advertising purposes, nastier spyware can also collect sensitive information like login credentials. Extreme spyware includes keyloggers, which are programs that record every keystroke you make on your machine.

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