In this article, the author will focus on malware like Flame and others, and measures that can be taken to counter these threats.

Introduction

In today’s world it is hard to believe that low level code is still able to run on machines and avoid detection. Governments find they are defenceless and lose control of their own environment. This article will focus on malware like Flame and others, and measures that can be taken to counter these threats.

As software is evolving, some developers are taking precautions and implementing security measures to ensure their newly developed products are more secure, however the threat of malware is increasingly prevalent. As technologies improve to counter these threats so have the malware evolved to infiltrate deeper into the code. Additionally more sophisticated approaches are being taken by the bad guys to get malware into vulnerable systems. It is surprising to find that they even hijack software update services so that when machines are updated, instead of security patches and software updates, malware is downloaded and installed.

New attack vectors are being developed for this “social” age like infection through social networking sites, attacks that are analogous with the past are still causing havoc in 2012. Traditional computer viruses are still secretly infecting files, causing computers to slow down and using our computers as hosts to infect sites as well as other computers and networks.

Malware can be described as follows:

Adware-programs that place advertisements on your screen through various means.
Spyware- Spyware is used to gain information about you or data on your computer and redirect it to another location. Information such as your personal details, browser history, login names and passwords and credit card numbers.
Hijackers- Hijackers target internet explorer. They take control of various parts of your web browser, including your home page, search pages, and search bar. They redirect you to sites you would not go to otherwise.
Toolbars- a toolbar that is installed through devious means falls into the category of malware.
Dialers- a program that sets your modem up to dial to a number which incurs you with a hefty phone bill but makes someone else wealthier.
Deepware- this is a new term that I have coined that is mal code that runs deeper than the OS and runs like a rootkit at a very low level, mostly undetectable by common AV.