If your acquaintance with malware boils down to viruses and you think that antivirus is sufficient protection, you need to be updated on the topic. In 2021, there’s still a multitude of harmful programs that can do a lot of damage to your system. Here’s how.
Types of Malware
Malware is an umbrella term, a combination of “malicious” and “software”, that encompasses several potentially harmful software types. Experts specify from five to more than twenty of them, the most common being:
- Viruses
- Worms
- Trojans
- Spyware and adware
- Ransomware
- Rootkits
- Keyloggers
- Bots
Long list, isn’t it? This is not comprehensive, however. There are even more types of harmful software – polymorphic and mobile malware, browser hijackers, and other, less common, variations.
All of them are still thriving in 2021, despite the advancement of endpoint protection software, and every malware type can be damaging to your system in its own way.
Some are extremely hard to detect and remove, so it’s better to prevent contamination in the first place than to deal with the consequences of your carelessness.
In this article, we’ve put together a list of the most common ways malware can do damage to your system in 2021. Read it attentively and take the necessary precautions!
1. Stealing Sensitive Data
The Internet is undoubtedly one of humanity’s greatest achievements ever. Sadly, it’s also one of the greatest threats to every individual’s privacy at the same time.
Every time we use it, be it to pay for online purchases or to look for essay help from an essay writing help service, we put our personal data at risk. In the best-case scenario, we’re only risking our reputation. The worst output can be the leakage of important credentials like passport data or credit card numbers.
There are plenty of ways how hackers can obtain this data, from using spyware and keyloggers to sophisticated social engineering tactics. The latter ones have been reported to be on the rise since the pandemic began, and the only way to defend against them is for you to be vigilant.
2. Damaging Your Files
Ransomware is another malware type that’s enjoying momentum in 2021. Its name speaks for itself: it’s designed to steal something and then make the victim pay a ransom.
“Something” in this case is the files on your computer. Once it’s implemented into your system, ransomware starts encrypting all data on your computer, and the only way to get your files back is supposed to be paying a ransom to the intruders.
While this scheme is usually used to attack those who are most likely to lose something truly valuable – like government officials, business executives, or celebrities, – everyone can fall victim to it.
Surely, if you’re a student, you may only be risking losing your term paper, but it can be quite distressing, too. Just imagine having to write it all over again!
To protect your data from ransomware, never forget about backups. You must have at least one on a reliable storage agent, but it’s better to have a few. There are your standard system backups, external devices, cloud storage – take advantage of them all.
That said, it’s also essential to remember that some viruses can still make a perfect mess of your system unless you have sufficient protection. So, how long has it been since you’ve scanned your files?
3. Hijacking Your Computer
As if the risks of exposing or losing your data were not enough, there’s more that malware can do. It can literally hijack your computer so that you would lose control of it, partially or completely.
First, there are rootkits that are commonly used for ad fraud as they can operate the way humans would, opening browsers and clicking on ads to gain profit for the attackers. These programs are particularly dangerous because they can gain full remote control of your system and thus remove the antivirus software which poses further risks to the system.
But there’s something even more threatening – bots. By themselves, bots are not malicious and are normally used to perform harmless routine operations. It is only when they are designed by criminals that they become truly dangerous.
Criminals use bots to gain control of your computer and make the system run at their command. This allows them to create a network of remote computers called a botnet that’s powerful enough for a large-scale malicious attack. It can be a:
- Ad-click fraud
- Spam attack
- DDoS attack
What’s more, not only can your computer be hijacked, but your website can be, too, if you have one. Losing it – along with the domain name – is usually a significant problem, so it’s crucial to learn about the means to protect your data online in advance. While this information may seem difficult to digest, it’s still necessary if you care about your online safety and privacy.
4. Slowing Down Your System
Every type of malware is harmful in its way, but there’s also something that they all have in common: slowing down your system.
Surely, there are many other harmless programs that can do that too – antiviruses, for example. But all experts note that the sudden underperformance of your computer should always be a red flag. So, if you notice that your gear is not working as fast as it used to, the problem might be that it’s infected with malware.
Conclusion
There are many types of malicious programs that can still do damage to your system in 2021. And while some of the threats they pose can be easily eliminated by effective endpoint protection, others require more than that.
In these times of thriving social engineering tactics, it’s crucial to always be on alert. It also helps to learn about some technical aspects of cybersecurity, even if you’re far from being a tech geek. It may take time, but isn’t your data valuable enough, after all? Oftentimes, users lose data and assets because of their own carelessness, so don’t follow in their footsteps!
