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Today, entirely new types of high-tech frauds are posing serious threats and challenges. Here is an overview of a few Internet threats we should be aware of.
Adware
Adware is any software application or program in which advertising banners are displayed or pop-up windows appear while the program is running. Adware is considered ‘spyware’ and is installed without the user's knowledge. It typically displays targeted ads based on words searched for on the Web or derived from a user's surfing habits that have been periodically sent in the background to a Web server.
Hacking
Hacking means illegally accessing other people's computer systems for destroying, disrupting or carrying out illegal activities on the network or computer systems.
Key Logger
A Key Logger (Key Logger or Keystroke Logger) is a program that runs invisibly in the background, recording all the keystrokes, usually saving the results to a log file. A Key Logger allows you to find out what other users do on your computer in your absence. It is designed for hidden computer monitoring and monitoring of computer activity.
Pharming
Pharming redirects a user to a spoofed website by 'poisoning' the local domain name server (DNS). Poisoning a DNS server involves changing the specific record for a domain, which results in sending the user to a website different from the one intended unbeknown to the user. This type of attack involves Trojan Horses, worms or other technologies that attack the browser address bar, thus redirecting the user to a fraudulent website when the user types in a legitimate address.
Unlike in phishing, a pharming attacker does not have to rely upon users clicking on hyperlinks in emails. Even if users correctly enter the web address (instead of clicking on a hyperlink), the attacker can still redirect them to fake sites.
Phishing
Phishing is a technique used to gain personal information for the purpose of identity theft, using fraudulent email messages that appear to come from legitimate sources, most commonly banks and other financial services providers. Such email messages aim to convince consumers to divulge account numbers, credit card details, and online banking passwords through the use of bogus websites that mimic genuine websites.
The latest being Spear phishing where emails appear to come from a company’s human resources and target a single user or a department within an organisation.
Spoofing
Email spoofing describes fraudulent alteration of an email ‘header’ to make it appear that the message has originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. The distributors of spam commonly use spoofing to hide or modify the origin of an email message, so as to entice the recipients to open and respond to their solicitations.
Spyware
Spyware is software that is installed on a computing device and takes information from it without the consent or knowledge of the user and gives that information to a third party. Spyware is an intelligence gathering tool that targets sensitive information including banking and credit card details.
Trojan Horse
A Trojan Horse is a program that installs malicious software while under the guise of doing something else. A Trojan Horse differs from a virus in that a Trojan Horse does not insert its code into other computer files and appears harmless until executed. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse. Trojan Horses may appear to be useful or interesting programs (or at the very least, harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed.
Virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. A virus can spread from one computer to many others through computer worms and Trojan Horses.
Worms
A worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. A virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program. A worm is self-contained and does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself.
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