Trojans Virus
Ground Zero for malware is the Internet itself. The Web is by far the most common vector for malware infection, Perry said. "The most universal thing of all that's involved in cyber bad guy activity is the Web."Users don't even have to click anything on websites to infect their computers. Just looking is enough. "Look at the web page and Bang!, you're infected without so much as a how-do-you-do," he said.
Forsaking Internet Explorer and replacing it with another browser such as Firefox won't give you much protection either, Perry said. Malware is basically equal opportunity when it comes to browsers and browser plug-ins.
A Trojan downloader is the most common malicious software to get hit with, he said. A Trojan is any program that pretends to be something other than what it really is — a downloader is a program that downloads another program. "It's like Robin Hood," Perry said. "He shot an arrow with a string over a tree branch. He used the string to drag up a rope and the rope to drag up a basket of stuff."
In the past, sites devoted to porn and file sharing were the usual suspects for being sources of infection. "It used to be true," but no longer, Perry said. “We’ve seen government agencies and the Roman Catholic Church get infected; we’ve seen railroads and airlines and the British Museum get infected. There is no safe web page.”
To make matters worse, infected computers are often asymptomatic and appear to be functioning normally. Many Trojan viruses don't slow your computer down or make your cursor go crazy. Like high blood pressure, malware is a silent killer.
"Unfortunately, there's a big cognitive disconnect on the part of users who have seen movies where the virus comes on the screen and announces that it is infecting you," Perry said. "Any malware you see today will be by design as symptom free as they can possibly make it."
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