Security threats

Tens of thousands of security threats are currently known to exist, and dozens�sometimes hundreds�of new threats are being released on the Internet every day.

At one time, viruses were the most common problem, but today's security threats are often quite sophisticated, designed to spread with extreme rapidity and exploit certain faults or weaknesses in an operating system, browser, or network security system.

• Trojan horses

• Worms (and droppers, the bits of harmful code often left behind in a worm attack)

• Spyware

• Network viruses

• DoS (Denial of Service attacks)

• Mixed threat attacks

• Malicious Java code and Applets

• VBScript, JavaScript

• Joke programs

• Executable and Link format

• Viruses, including:

• HTML viruses

• Macro viruses

• ActiveX malicious code

• COM and EXE file infectors

• Boot sector viruses

• Web mail attachments

• Web traffic and sites (disease vectors)

• FTP traffic from the Internet (file downloads)

In addition, there are a lot more network vulnerabilities:

• Instant Messaging file transfers

• (infected) Laptops that log on to your network

• Key-logging spyware that opens an outbound port

• Custom hacked legitimate programs, or manipulated counterfeits

See also:

• Types of viruses

• Virus writers