Online Security And The Five Types Of Infectors You Should Know About

Sure, you've heard of viruses and chances are you've heard of Trojans too. If you relate the latter to the Trojan war, you're not alone but hey, don't laugh and don't despair. You can increase your online security IQ a level higher by transcending these seemingly elementary terms. This page will orient you with infectors – a collective term that, among others, includes the viruses and Trojans.

Infectors do as their name suggests: they infect your computer unit, thereby altering and causing the operations to slow down, if not fail. They also make your computer vulnerable to monitoring and control by third parties. Some infectors usually attack your computer when you download fishy files from even fishier sources, and click on suspicious links that invite you to download unknown “games” and other enticing material. If you're an avid surfer, there are five types of infectors you must know about and protect your computer unit against. Check them out in the following list.

• TROJAN HORSES. The Trojan horse is a deceptive infector that passes itself off as a useful and legitimate software. However, once you try to open and run the software, the infector instead attacks your computer by deleting your files, damaging some programs and installing new ones. Despite being classified as a type of infector, the Trojan Horse is not infectious like viruses or worms. It, however, makes your computer vulnerable to unwanted access by outside parties.

• TRAP DOORS. Trap doors are also known as backdoors. They refer to the specific group of Trojan Horses that compromise your online security by stealthily gaining access and control of your web activities and your entire computer system. These infectors are deceptively coded along with some legitimate-looking software which you will download.

• VIRUSES. Viruses include files or programs that, when clicked, opened or executed, infect your computer and inflict damages on it. The havoc wreaked by viruses come in different forms. Viruses can corrupt your file – rendering the saved data irretrievable or the entire file inaccessible. Viruses can also cause your software to malfunction and your hardware to crash.

• VIRUS CONSTRUCTION TOOLKITS. Virus construction toolkits are infectors that somewhat operate like a factory, creating viruses in large numbers. Although a bunch of the same viruses may seem like a huge threat indeed, one positive thing about virus construction toolkits is that the viruses being created are easily detected and countered by anti-viral construction kits.

• WORMS. Worms are somewhat like viruses when it comes to corrupting your files and damaging your software and hardware. The great difference is that worms are more formidable. They differ from viruses in at least three distinctive ways. First, worms do not require clicking, opening or executing a malicious file in order to operate. Second, worms can replicate themselves and spread the infection faster than viruses. Third, worms consume a significant chunk of your system memory, causing your computer to freeze and letting malicious third parties to remotely control your computer when you're online.