Main project

 How does malware affect computer systems?

What is malware?

Malware is software designed to gain unauthorized access to a computer system, causing damage or disrupting a computer system. Malware does not promote itself on its own, however, they are intentionally built by hackers whereby they are shared with users without the user having any information about the file or link sent to them and once it is installed by the user, their machine gets infected, therefor causing damage to the selected device.

Types of malware.

I will talk about 5 types of malware.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware whereby it locks a specific file or data and threatens a user about the file being locked if a given condition is not met by the user, for instance paying a certain amount of money.

Spyware

Spyware can be summarised as invisible malware, as this is a type of malware that is hidden and can track data or information to a specific device without being noticed.

Adware.

According to research from Kaspersky (2022), it states that adware, also known as advertisement-supported software, generates revenue for its developers by automatically generating adverts on your screen, usually within a web browser. In simpler terms, adware is a type of malware that displays unnecessary and numerous advertisements while using an electronic device.

Trojan

This is a type of malware that appears to be a program or file that can be trusted, but it is actually malware.

Virus

This is a type of malware that is meant to change the behavior of a computer and is designed to spread this malware to another computer.

Phases of Malware analysis.

According to Tim Erlin (2020), there are three phases of malware.

(a). Prevention

(b). Detection

(c). Remediation

How does a computer system get affected by malware?

According to research done by Comodo Cybersecurity (2022), they state that a computer system becomes affected by malware by downloading any file or software from suspicious sites.

Effects of malware on a computer system

(a) Shares information with the hacker.

A hacker will be able to gain access to most of your personal information such as medical records and personal emails with their passwords. They will be able to use your information to do nefarious activities such as phishing and installing viruses and trojans without your consent or notice.

(b) Alters the normal operating system of a computer as it becomes slow.

Due to the presence of malware, malware will focus on blocking computer systems and then be able to force the device to start downloading irrelevant applications.

(c) Will eat up most of your storage in your computer system

Due to several activities happening in the device caused by malware, the device's storage gets depleted over time, as apps get downloaded without the user's content

How do we prevent our computer systems from malware attacks?

There are several ways we can prevent and protect our computer systems such as.

1. Creating regular backups for your important information.

2. Using trustful antiviruses, for example, Kaspersky and Bitdefender.

3. Placing two-factor authentication in most of your software.

References.