Hacking

  All about adware Here’s how it happens. You go online with your nice, well-behaved browser, only to see it fly into a virtual tantrum, as an onslaught of advertisements either pops up, slides in from the side, or otherwise inserts itself to interrupt and even redirect your intended activity. And no matter how much you click to close those windows, they keep buzzing you like flies at a picnic. That bothersome phenomenon results from adware, short for advertising supported software. And just as your picnic food attracts the pests that come after it, money—or the revenue generated by unbidden ads—is what draws adware to your PC or mobile device. Below, we offer a short primer on adware, what it is, how you get it, what it tries to do to you, how to deal with it, and what to do in the future to avoid this irritant. What is adware? Adware  is unwanted software designed to throw advertisements up on your screen, most often within a web browser. Some security professionals view it ...

   All about ransomware Ever wondered what all the ransomware fuss is about? You've heard about it at the office or read about it in the news. Maybe you've got a pop-up on your computer screen right now warning of a ransomware infection. Well, if you’re curious to learn all there is to know about ransomware, you’ve come to the right place. We'll tell you about ransomware’s different forms, how you get it, where it came from, who it targets, and what to do to protect against it. What is ransomware? Ransom malware, or  ransomware , is a type of malware that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files and demands ransom payment in order to regain access. The earliest variants of ransomware were developed in the late 1980s, and payment was to be sent via snail mail. Today, ransomware authors order that payment be sent via cryptocurrency or credit card. How do I get ransomware? There are several different ways that ransomware can infect your computer. One of t...

  All about malware You know how every year the medical community campaigns for everyone to get a flu shot? That’s because flu outbreaks typically have a season—a time of year when they start spreading and infecting people. In contrast, there are no predictable seasonal infections for PCs, smartphones, tablets, and enterprise networks. For them, it’s always flu season. But instead of suffering chills and body aches, users can fall ill from a kind of machine malady—malware. Malware infections come at us like a torrent of water from a fire hose, each with its own methods of attack—from stealthy and sneaky to subtle like a sledgehammer. But if knowledge is power, as a preventative inoculation against infection, we offer here a short course on malware, what it is, its symptoms, how you get it, how to deal with it, and how to avoid it in the future. What is malware? Malware , or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that describes any malicious program or code that is harmful to sys...