Clearing the air of viruses
Monday, October 6, 2008
While many people insist that their computer has been infected by a computer virus, today's online threats are more complex than the old forms of malware that people are used to, it has been claimed.
Lincoln Spector, a web and email security expert writing for the Washington Post, explained that today's criminals have adopted more diverse and targeted ways of compromising system security than older viruses, which commonly infect a certain program and then attempt to replicate on other machines.
He pointed out that people are actually more likely to find themselves exposed to trojan attacks, which dupe people into installing software in the belief that they will benefit from doing so.
"So check yourself before you tell someone your computer has a virus. You're probably admitting your own ignorance," he suggested.
Among the most recent high profile trojan horse exploits was an attack which urged people to install software disguised as a well known antivirus product.
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