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Security Issues Definitions

 

Security Issues:
These are issues affecting your privacy and security while on the Internet. Most security risks that will be mentioned here are ones concerning holes in software which leak information or will allow people to gain access to private information.

Viruses/Trojans/Worms:
These will be *real* warnings about new viruses/trojans/worms. If I'm warning you of one, then you can take it to the bank that I've fully checked its validity first.

• Virus - A program that is almost always highly destructive in nature. Generally the virus will activate on a certain date, or time, or both, or even when a certain event has occured in your system (such as exceeding 75% of available hard drive space.) A virus's nature is to replicate, and it will do so at every opportunity.
• Trojan - This type of program's purpose is to subvert your system in some fashion. For example, a trojan might capture your keystrokes and send these to someone each time you connect to the Internet in the hopes that your login and password might be captured. A trojan may also introduce a "backdoor" of sorts to allow a hacker/cracker access to your system without your knowledge or consent.
• Worms - The line between worms and viruses has become somewhat blurry of late. Generally, a worm is not destructive, and its purpose in life is to spread as far and wide as possible. It is by this action in which the damage generally occurs. For example, mail servers may come to a crawl or even a complete standstill due to the overwhelming message traffic created by the worm in its effort to reproduce.

Hoaxes:
The most memorable in all of your minds is most likely the Good Times Virus hoax. These are warnings about some new fangled virus that will wreck your life. The difference between this and other virus warnings is that they aren't for real. Their entire purpose is to scare people and bog down mail servers with all the forwarding going on.

The reason I'll be telling you about them is so that you'll be in the know and won't forward them to everyone in your address book.

Urban Legends:
These are stories that will be computer related, but aren't necessarily virus related. A warning/story moves out of the hoaxes category when it keeps making a comeback. An example of an urban legend would be the one about the FCC allowing phone companies to charge for local access to the ISP in which the cost would be passed onto us as users.