Nowadays everything is going digital – businesses, services, art, money, even our private lives. That’s why we should all know what risks there are in the deep waters of Internet. This includes the most common form of hacker attack – malware. So, let us share some light on this dark topic and help you find a way to protect yourself against malware attacks.
What is malware?
One of the most popular antivirus software providers, AVG has given the perfect explanation:
“The term malware is a contraction of malicious software. Put simply, malware is any piece of software that was written with the intent of damaging devices, stealing data, and generally causing a mess. Viruses, Trojans, spyware, and ransomware are among the different kinds of malware.”
The responsible people behind the release of malware are of course hackers with ill intentions. Furthermore, as there are different types of malicious software, they affect your device’s functionality differently. For example, viruses—as the name suggests—attach to clean files and spread to other clean files, slowing the core functionalities of your device. Trojans open the backdoor for other malicious software, spywares are there to spy on you and there are, of course, others.
How do you know you have been infected?
The most common sign that your device has been infected is if it is getting slower for no reason. That happens, as malicious software is using resources. In that way, it is also slowing down your operating system. Other signs of infection could be the device freezing or shutting down suddenly.
Furthermore, for those of you who are using Windows devices, you might have experienced the Blue Screen of Death. Well, that’s more than a clear sign that your device needs a doctor. Additionally, you should be aware of suspicious pop-up, apps that mysteriously appear on your desktop as well as unexpected lack of storage space.
How to protect yourself?
Hackers are inventing new types of malware pretty much every day. Malicious software usually aims at flaws in browsers and web applications’ plug-ins. Luckily, here comes the malware removal software for your protection. This prevents the malware from reaching its target.
One way to protect your devices is to install a Web Application Firewall (WAF). However, you should note that it works only for HTTP applications. It is very efficient in preventing the most common attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. In order to do that, WAF investigates all incoming requests with the help of different analytical tools such as signature, reputational and behavioral analysis.
Another good practice for protection is installing an ad-blocker for your browser. In this way, you protect yourself against malicious pop-up ads. As you can’t know in advance which ads are infected, it is better just to block them all, unless you really trust the website that you are visiting.
Last but not least, you can deploy two-factor authentication solutions. They secure the users’ log-in credentials, so that hackers can’t make use of the stolen ones. That is possible because two-factor authentication asks the user to complete an additional authentication step which is usually connected to a device that the user has a physical access to.
Always stay alert!
According to Statista, there were more than 5,700 global malware incidents in 2018. Furthermore, it seems that WordPress websites are the most vulnerable to attacks. That’s why it is very important to protect your private and business data from hackers. All you need to do is to stay informed about the different ways to minimize cyber security risk. Luckily, there are also ethical hackers that are eager to help you out and hack your website for the good sake of it.