The types and evolution of Malware

welcome to my blog post, today I am going to illustrate about some malware types and the evolution of Ransomware briefly , thus are you ready!!!? let’s get started.

There will be more part of this article thus I am not going to be explaining everything at once. :)

Ransomware the starting point

The ransomware threat has been around since the early days of the classic computer virus.Many studies show that the first document documented ransomware, called AIDS Trojan(also known as the PC cyborg virus, appeared in 1989. You might not know however, a biologist named Joseph Popp mailed 20.000 infected floppy disks which are not used by IT anymore :) really old one thus, being to the attendees of the World Health Organization AIDS Conference.

Computer Malware

Malware, short for malicious software, is a general term used to describe all types of software programs that can bring damage or steal data from the target computing device. Most malware types need to be executed(triggered) by the user to execute their malicious code and spread to other computers and network which can be occurred huge damages unfortunately. For instance, where can they be spread; floppy disk,CD/DVD/USB and other removable media, or they can be delivered via malicious web sites furthermore, they can also hit android / IOS devices there are a lot of different malware types which can be delivered and shown as normal extension.

Malware Types

Yep, when we talk about Malwares we should give some examples and types in order to identify and know how they work and do.

Viruses

This is the most classic and the oldest one, this term used to describe malicious computer software.The main intent of a computer virus is to bring damage to the victim’s operating system.

Worms

The Morris worm, or internet worm, was one of the first to be seen in the wild. In November 1988, it was distributed via the internet caused significant damage to the infected systems. This is another type of old-school attack that is still widely used to propagate malicious code across networks, be careful when you are being hit with this type you should be able to identify and remove this virus as soon as possible because it can be spread all over your network which you do not want.Worms usually attack e-mail clients on the victim machine such as Microsoft outlook, Thunderbird, and copy themselves to all contacts in the address book to further distribute their infection to new location

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware that denies access to user files, sometimes encrypting the entire hard drive and even all the attached external hard drives and network shares, after which it demands a ransom from the user to regain access to the system and stored information

Cryptojacking

This is a piece of code, usually written in JavaScript, that infects a computer silently when the victim clicks a malicious link in an email or visits a compromised web site infected with this malware, and this one is installed via exploits kits such as RIG exploits.

Scareware

Scareware,also known as deception software or fraudware, is a form of malware that uses social engineering tactics to cause shock, or the perception of a threat in order to convince users into buying unwanted software, you will usually unwanted pop-ups which they push into buying that for instance, antivirus or other unusual software

Adware

Adware (short for “advertising supported software”) delivers ads to the victim machine without consent.many software creators use adware to generate revenue from their freely distributed computer programs shortly, this tactics is being used for getting sensitive information and credentials from the user.

Spyware

Spyware, is a kind of tracing software similar to adware, but is solely used for malicious intent, this type of malware is really dangerous because it can monitor everything you type on keyboard and send it to its operator thus some types install other malware (ransomware) such as.

Trojan Horse

This is another kind of malicious software that installs silently on the victim machine.A Trojan usually comes bundled with a normal file or internet program to trick users into downloading and installing it, and when you are being damaged with this type uuuuh!! not good because it has full control over your microphone, device,camera actually anything thus do not download everything which is shown as free on the internet.

Backdoors

Backdoor functionality exists within many types of malware; in simple terms; a backdoor is malicious code that opens a port on the victim machine to let the attacker(whether human or system bot) gain unauthorized access to perform its malicious actions( we will practice later on my YT channel)

NOTE!!

RATS,Rootkits are one of them which also being used for embedded within CPU, hard drives, peripheral devices.

Downloaders

This is a type of malware that downloads other malware rare he:). A downloader will contain within its code a URL to o download the other malware upon execution.As an example Nemucod, which is a Trojan downloader, was used to download ransomware such as TeslaCrypt or locky onto victim machine.

Rootkits

A rootkit is a dangerous type of malware;it has the ability to gain full access like (administrative access) over the system and has the ability to prevent normal detection programs(antivirus and anti rootkit programs) and yes it can be seen as the dangerous type because it can attack at the hardware level ( firmware rootkits) and removal require hardware replacement.

Thank You so much for reading this blog of mine hopefully, you have learnt something from this and as being a malware researcher you should be able to know this in order to detect binary codes which I will explain later on, just of that curiosity do like this field not Pro of course just started with this path looks really awesome to combining/ adding this area in my journey

You can follow me on:

linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/ahmetgöker

YouTube: https://youtube.com/TurkishHoodie

Telegram: @Black_Mamba010/@TurkishCyber

Please stay update there will be more such things, we will also talk about Reverse engineering later on but, need to be experienced in that:)

Ahmet Göker /Malware Researcher/CTF player/RedTeam