Anti Malware Softwares

Earlier article: Firewall in a Networking System

What is a Malware?

Malware is anything that tries to interfere your network system may that be to gain unauthorized access, or to harm your networking system by clogging up the memory, processor or the network traffic.

Malware, short for malicious software, is any software used to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. It is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses etc. and other malicious programs.

What do anti-malware tools do?

Anti-malware network tools help administrators identify block and remove malware. They enable the IT department to tailor its anti-malware policies to identify known and unknown malware sources.

Malware is always on the lookout for network vulnerabilities - in security defenses, operating systems, browsers, applications and popular targets such as Adobe Flash, Acrobat and Reader - that they can exploit a victim’s network with full access to his system.

The effects of malware range from brief annoyance to computer crashes and identity theft. Practically, Malware is easier to avoid than it is to remove.

Best practices call for a multipronged defense that might also include IP blacklisting, data loss prevention (DLP) tools, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, web browsing policies, egress filtering, and outbound-traffic proxies.

Is Anti malware and AntiVirus the same thing?

Viruses and Malwares are just like alkalis and bases. We know all alkalis are bases but all bases are not alkalis. (science reference).

What I'm trying to say is viruses are a specific type of malware, they are often designed to spread,replicate and then spread again, while malware is a broad term used to describe all sorts of unwanted or malicious code. Malware can include viruses, spyware, adware, nagware, trojans, worms, and more.

What are some examples of malwares detected by anti-malware softwares?

Virus

A computer virus is software usually hidden within another seemingly innocuous program that can produce copies of itself and insert them into other programs or files, and that usually performs a harmful action such as destroying the data integrity by corrupting it

Lock Screens

Lock-screens, or screen lockers is a type of “cyber police” ransomware that blocks screens on Windows or Android devices with a false accusation in harvesting illegal content, trying to scare the victims into paying up a fee.

Trojan Horses

Trojan horses are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example, where a user is duped into executing an e-mail attachment disguised to be unsuspicious, (e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by drive-by download.

Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act as a backdoor, contacting a controller which can then have unauthorized access to the affected computer. While Trojan horses and backdoors are not easily detectable by themselves, computers may appear to run slower due to heavy processor or network usage.

Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojan horses generally do not attempt to inject themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves.

Rootkits

Once malicious software is installed on a system, it is essential that it stays concealed, to avoid detection. Software packages known as rootkits allow this concealment, by modifying the host's operating system so that the malware is hidden from the user.

Rootkits can prevent a malicious process from being visible in the system's list of processes, or keep its files from being read.

Backdoors

A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication procedures, usually over a connection to a network such as the Internet. Once a system has been compromised, one or more backdoors may be installed in order to allow access in the future,[32] invisibly to the user.

The idea has often been suggested that computer manufacturers preinstall backdoors on their systems to provide technical support for customers, but this has never been reliably verified.

Backdoors may be installed by Trojan horses, worms, implants, or other methods

Well, that's all on anti-malwares and the malwares against which they protect the system. We shall discuss Network Management in the next article. Stay tuned for that.

And like always, if you have any queries, doubts or suggestions, let me know. Click on ask questions from the left panel of your screen.

Thank you