What Are the Main Types of Computer Viruses: a Details Overview

First, you need to figure out what computer viruses are and where they come from.

In 1961, engineers Victor Vysotsky, Doug McIlroy, and Robert Morris of Bell Telephone Laboratories developed small programs that could make copies of themselves. These were the first viruses. They have created in the form of a game that the engineers called “ Darwin “, the purpose of which was to send these programs to friends to see which one destroyed more of the opponent’s programs and made more copies of its own. The player who managed to fill the computers of others was declared the winner.

They were named viruses by analogy with biological viruses that cause disease. To develop, an ordinary virus needs a living organism in which it will create its copies, and a computer virus needs to infect as many computers as possible in order to reproduce.

Alas, today viruses are no longer created by a group of enthusiasts and not at all for toys. Almost all modern viruses are created by cybercriminals with the goal of obtaining a user’s confidential data or using his computer for personal purposes.

Main Types of Computer Viruses

Let’s consider the main types of viruses:

Worms

A worm is a program that creates its own copies. Its charm lies in cluttering the computer, which makes it slower. A distinctive feature of the worm is that it cannot become part of another harmless program.

Camouflage Viruses — Rootkit

These viruses are used to hide malicious activity. They mask malware to avoid detection by antivirus software. Rootkits can also modify the operating system on a computer and replace its core functions in order to hide their own presence and the actions that an attacker takes on an infected computer.

Spyware

Spies collect information about user actions and behaviour. They are mainly interested in information — addresses, passwords, credit card details).

Zombie

Zombies allow an attacker to control a user’s computer. Zombie computers can be networked (bot-no) and used for mass attacks on sites or sending spam. The user may not even know that his computer has been zombified and is being used by an intruder.

Advertising Viruses — Adware

Advertising programs, without the knowledge of users, are embedded in various software for the purpose of displaying advertisements. Typically, adware is embedded in software distributed free of charge. Advertising is located in the working interface. Often, these programs also collect and forward personal information about the user to their developer.

Blocker Viruses — Winlock

Such programs block the user from accessing the operating system. When the computer boots up, a window appears in which the user is accused of downloading unlicensed content or copyright infringement. And under the threat of complete deletion of all data from the computer, they demand to send an SMS to a phone number or top-up his account. Naturally, after transferring money to the attacker’s account, the banner does not disappear anywhere.

Trojan Viruses — Trojan

The Trojan horse is the most dangerous type of virus, as it disguises itself in other harmless programs. Until the user launches this most innocuous program, the Trojan carries no danger and is not easy to detect. The Trojan horse can cause various damage to your computer. Mostly Trojans are used to steal, modify or delete a user’s personal data. A distinctive feature of the Trojan virus is that it cannot multiply on its own.

Modern antivirus software has the necessary functionality to detect and neutralize various virus programs and provide reliable protection for the user’s computer.