Thousands of virus/malware exist, with more being created each day. In addition to virus/malware, new threats designed to exploit vulnerabilities in corporate email systems and Web sites continue to emerge. These include spyware/grayware, phish sites, network viruses, Trojans, and worms.
Collectively, these threats are known as "malware". Here is a summary of the major threat types:
|
Threat Type |
Characteristics |
|
Denial of Service (DoS) attack |
Repeated massive access of a Web service, preventing other systems from accessing the service and from retrieving data from it |
|
phishing |
Unsolicited email requesting user verification of private information, such as credit card or bank account numbers, with the intent to commit fraud |
|
spyware/grayware |
Technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge |
|
Trojan |
Malware that performs unexpected or unauthorized, often malicious, actions - Trojans cause damage, expected system behavior, and compromise system security, but unlike viruses, they do not replicate |
|
virus |
A program that carries a destructive payload, and replicates - spreading quickly to infect other systems. By far, viruses remain the most prevalent threat to computing |
|
worm |
A self-contained program or set of programs that is able to spread functional copies of itself or its segments to other computer systems, typically using network connections or email attachments |