As an Internet user, you should be aware about the black side of the Internet. As you know, the Internet is functional due to the websites and software engineers are key people who design, develop and maintain websites. However, there are lots of people who spread viruses among the Internet for several reasons. Here in this article, a short list is presented which will help you to get information about viruses.
Malware
The malicious program which may harm your computer is called malware. It can make your computer hanged, send / receive a large amount of data from the Internet, and also make your operating system corrupted. You may lose your important data stored in files on your computer due to malware.
Spyware
A script or program that may be used to spy on your computer for confidential data access is called spyware. The spyware are used for analyzing and accessing your online behavior. It may send your data like browsing and downloading history, information from files stored on your computer, to a third party who are interested to observe it. Normally, the spyware programs are attached with torrents, key generators, and other similar software.
Adware
The adware are generally used for generating advertise revenue unethically. When you download songs from a popular website, you might have seen pop ups filled with lots of advertisements. Such adware may or may not contain spyware or other types of viruses.
Trojan Horse
The Trojan horse is the most dangerous type of viruses. It can be added to any executable or non executable files. When you download a key generator for software, there are chances of inclusion of Trojan horse in it. The Trojan horse can do almost anything to your computer. It can disable mouse and keyboard actions, install/uninstall any programs in your computer, disable antivirus program, and even it can format your hard drive and disable your USB ports and DVD drive so you may never be able to install operating system further!
Cookie Grabbers
When you login to a website and check 'remember me', a cookie is stored on your computer. A cookie grabber may access the information of cookies and use it for getting your credentials. The developer of cookie grabber gets your cookie and stores it in his own computer. He can then access your account from his computer too.
Key loggers
A key logger has similar purpose as of cookie grabber. The key logger may record key strokes on your computer and it can retrieve information like passwords, email address, etc using a special algorithm.
Now that you know about types of viruses, you should be careful when downloading anything from the Internet. You should also use an effective antivirus and a firewall to protect your computer.