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This tutorial will show what viruses are, how they affect your system, and how to prevent them and secure yourself.

The goal of this thread is that after your reading this, you will have knowledge about what's said above and you will know how to secure yourself to prevent any infections.

These for the most part, are not my definitions, but I did compile them and gave my opinion about them.

Well, let's get right into it.


What is a Computer Virus?

A potentially damaging computer program capable of reproducing itself causing great harm to files or other programs without permission or knowledge of the user.

Types of viruses include:

1) Boot Sector Virus :- Boot sector viruses infect either the master boot record of the hard disk or the floppy drive. The boot record program responsible for the booting of operating system is replaced by the virus. The virus either copies the master boot program to another part of the hard disk or overwrites it. They infect a computer when it boots up or when it accesses the infected floppy disk in the floppy drive. i.e. Once a system is infected with a boot-sector virus, any non-write-protected disk accessed by this system will become infected.

2) File or Program Viruses :- Some files/programs, when executed, load the virus in the memory and perform predefined functions to infect the system. They infect program files with extensions like .EXE, .COM, .BIN, .DRV and .SYS .

3) Multipartite Viruses :- A multipartite virus is a computer virus that infects multiple different target platforms, and remains recursively infective in each target. It attempts to attack both the boot sector and the executable, or programs, files at the same time. When the virus attaches to the boot sector, it will in turn affect the system files. and when the virus attaches to the files, it will in turn infect the boot sector. This type of virus can re-infect a system over and over again if all parts of the virus are not eradicated.

4) Stealth Viruses :- These viruses are stealthy in nature means it uses various methods for hiding themselves to avoid detection. They sometimes remove themselves from the memory temporarily to avoid detection by antivirus. They are somewhat difficult to detect. When an antivirus program tries to detect the virus, the stealth virus feeds the antivirus program a clean image of the file or boot sector.

5) Polymorphic Viruses :- Polymorphic viruses have the ability to mutate implying that they change the viral code known as the signature each time they spread or infect. Thus an antivirus program which is scanning for specific virus codes unable to detect it's presence.

6) Macro Viruses :- A macro virus is a computer virus that "infects" a Microsoft Word or similar application and causes a sequence of actions to be performed automatically when the application is started or something else triggers it. Macro viruses tend to be surprising but relatively harmless.A macro virus is often spread as an e-mail virus. Well-known examples are Concept Virus and Melissa Worm.


Adware

Adware is a program which delivers ads to your computers and makes the author money. Some software developers deliberately put adware on their software to generate income because the software they're providing is free.

Spyware

Spyware is a program that logs and/or monitors your computer without your permission. It can be used legally, (work office) or illegally by downloading suspicious software (keylogger)

Worm

Computer worms are programs which reproduce and function independently after jumping through different computer networks. Unlike a computer virus, which depends on a host file or a boot sector, rely on its own programming.

Email Worms

Infects computers through attachments or an HTML link that will navigate readers to an infected website. If either are opened, the worm will be downloaded and infect the computer.

Instant Message Worms

Appear in IM applications and send links of infected websites / files to your contacts

Internet Worms

An Internet worm will scan network resources using a local operating system service to find vulnerable machines, then try to connect and gain full access to those machines. They also scan for systems that have usable exploits, some of which allow the worms to send data packets or requests to install itself.

IRC Worms

Targets chat channels by either sending infected files or links to infected web pages to users. Unlike other worm types, this one is usually less effective, as IRC recipients must confirm the file request, save the file then open it before the worm can infect their computer.

File-Sharing Network Worms

These worms copy themselves into a shared folder and appear as a harmless name. Once the file begins to spread in the file-sharing network, so will the worm, which will continue to infect other systems in the same fashion


Trojans

Trojan is a program which is used to gain access to a computer by installing a program on infected PC to open some backdoor. Trojans are also known as Backdoors.

Types of Trojans

Software Detection Killers(Botkillers/ AV killers)

As the title states this kind of trojan is used to kill, delete, and/or stop the Anti-Virus Software that is installed in your system, if any.

Password Sending Trojan / Stealers

Stealing your details such as user log-information, address lists, credit cards or banking information. All that information is sent to the person who made that trojan.

Destructive trojan

Destructive Trojans delete files. They can be instructed to automatically delete all of the core system files in an operating system, including DLL, EXE or INI files on the infected computer.

Denial Of Service(DoS) Attack Trojans

Multiple PCs are infected with a zombie that is scheduled to attack specific websites simultaneously so that the heavy traffic volume will overload the site's bandwidth.

Remote Access Trojans (RATs)

A remote access Trojan is a program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program -- such as a game -- or sent as an email attachment. Once the host system is compromised, the intruder may use it to distribute RATs to other vulnerable computers and establish a botnet. This type of trojan is very popular.

Proxy/Wingate Trojans

Proxy Trojans transform a computer into a proxy server, either making it available to all Internet users or just to the hacker. This type of Trojan is developed to create "economizers" that are then used to provide complete anonymity for illegal actions, including buying merchandise with stolen credit cards and initiating Denial of Service attacks. If the hacker's actions are tracked, they are then traced to the victim's host PC rather than the actual hacker. Legally, the computer where the attack is launched is responsible for any damage the attack causes.


Malware

Malware is another name for virus software which is designed to delete, block, modify or copy data, or disrupt the performance of computers or computer networks

Generally, malware includes any virus software used to automatically conduct malicious activity, such as:

A computer virus
A worm virus
Adware, scareware and crimeware
Malicious tools such as spyware and rootkits
A trojan virus or trojan horse virus


Those are the most popular viruses that roam the internet, now we move on to some tools used for hacking. (You must know how hacking works before you try to prevent it from happening to you)


Hacker tools

Binder

A tool that combines two or more files into a single file, usually for the purpose of hiding one of them. Commonly associated with Trojan horses, where the Trojan is bound to a real file, such as a text file that opens with Notepad or other program. The users believe they are opening a safe file, and that is what appears on the screen, but at the same time the file is running, the Trojan is also running, usually undetected by the user.

Crypter

A crypter is used to make well known hacker's viruses (Malware) undetectable by anti-virus software by changing the virus program signatures that anti virus programs have in their databases to make them easier to spread


That's all I'm doing to discuss with hacking, if you wish to learn more feel free to look it up on your own. Let's get into how we will prevent this from happening to you.


Here are some good anti-viruses if you don't own one yet.

- Bit Defender Anti Virus
- Kaspersky Anti-Virus
- Panda Antivirus Pro
- F-Secure Anti-Virus
- AVG Anti-Virus
- Avast! Pro Antivirus
- G Data AntiVirus
- BullGuard Antivirus
- Avira AntiVir Premium
- ESET NOD32 Antivirus



Threat Fire

ThreatFire uses advanced patent-pending technology to detect signs of malicious behavior commonly used by malware threats. ThreatFire is unlike traditional antivirus products that rely on old fashioned "signature" technology and require updating every time a new threat occurs.

By constantly monitoring the activity on your PC ThreatFire's ActiveDefense technology is able to hunt down and paralyze threats that are too new or too clever to be recognized by traditional security software.

ThreatFire employs an intelligent behavioral engine to only alert you on truly malicious behavior, because sometimes even legitimate software may look malicious. This means you are only alerted when you really need to be.

(from site)

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KeyScrambler Personal

KeyScrambler Personal promises to encrypt your keystrokes at the level of your keyboard driver and decrypt them when they reach your browser so they're visible to you

(from site)

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Installing Anti-Malware

For anti-malware I would absolutely recommend Malwarebytes, it does it's job when removing malware.

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Installing Firewall

With Windows, you have a built-in firewall, it isn't the best, but I guess it does it's job.

If you want something more with your firewall I would use Comodo Firewall.

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Tools to tweak your PC and clean it up.

Tools such as Advance System Care, or CCleaner works fine.

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Introducing Sandboxie

Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.


Benefits of the Isolated Sandbox

Secure Web Browsing: Running your Web browser under the protection of Sandboxie means that all malicious software downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox and can be discarded trivially.

Enhanced Privacy: Browsing history, cookies, and cached temporary files collected while Web browsing stay in the sandbox and don't leak into Windows.

Secure E-mail: Viruses and other malicious software that might be hiding in your email can't break out of the sandbox and can't infect your real system.

Windows Stays Lean: Prevent wear-and-tear in Windows by installing software into an isolated sandbox.

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That is it, for now. If you have any suggestions to add to the tutorial, feel free to post down below. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it increased your knowledge about this subject.

Very informative, and lot's of useful information! Very nice post pal :y:

Thanks, I hope everyone who read the thread learned something from it.

Any questions about this tutorial you can ask me

I have bitdefender total security and malware bytes premium, i think that's enought to make me save

That's not a bad set-up. I like Kaspersky for anti-viruses though.

Its about personal preference.. both best tho.

Nothing will save you from a real hacker


The best hacker you've ever seen

How do you define a 'real' hacker? Taking steps to prevent any attacks is better than not doing anything at all.

I usually just open a program with sandboxie and see if it leaves files behind