Windows is the market share leader and has the majority user base due it's robust nature and flexibility with apps and games.If Mac or Linux were to become the leader which would in turn mean that users migrated to them that means even the malware writers would.They are not dumb and they know their code.
Anti-Virus & Malware = Myths and Facts
- Thread starter Nico@FMA
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Windows is the market share leader and has the majority user base due it's robust nature and flexibility with apps and games.If Mac or Linux were to become the leader which would in turn mean that users migrated to them that means even the malware writers would.They are not dumb and they know their code.
- May 8, 2017
- 536
No, I think avast is better than sophos in terms of protection and performance. Sophos is purely signature-based av(except the BETA premium version that had HitmanPro.Alert included), when avast has a Behavior Blocker and Hardened mode to increase your protection
Try them both out at separate times and see which one you have more of a liking for. Both Avast and Sophos are good options but it depends on your personal needs and what option you go for.
I wouldn't say that one is "better" than the other. I think that in this scenario, it just depends on your needs and which one will suit you best based on this.
Normal average users are a very big target aside from businesses. There are thousands, and thousands more of script kiddies who want to cause damage through the use of malicious software/web-based attacks for the sake of it or as an attempt to make money; their practice is on average home users. You don't have to be working for the NSA or CIA to be a target; normal home users aren't usually "picked", but just end up getting infected through general malicious spam e-mails, malicious links they find through being click-happy, use of of shady download sites... And so on.
Even the well-trained and experienced malware authors will happily target home users sometimes. Threats like Zeus, Carberp, Kronos, WannaCry, BadRabbit, Petya, NotPetya, and many others were not only aimed at businesses. The likelihood is that in scenarios like Zeus, the source code is sold to many others who will then pursue usage of it (targeting home users, businesses, or both simultaneously).
When it comes down to a malware author trying to make money, ideally they will want to aim for a business. However, the intention is not always specifically to make money.
About crypto-currency mining and other alike, there has been an outbreak of web-based miners, which is easier for an attacker to deploy and have it remain active for a long amount of time.
Phishing is quite popular as well. Not so much on the software side through fake PayPal "money givers" and similar, but web-based.
You definitely have a point in my eyes my friend! Zombie systems are those infected with a botnet, which can be a really serious problem sometimes. Botnets infections are typically used by the attacker to attack services through DDoS attacks (using up the network resources of the infected system to target a service resulting in the services' network resources being used up -> now the service is unavailable and goes down, and becomes more vulnerable to other types of attack).
There was recently security news about a new botnet found by a vendor (maybe Qihoo) which has already infected roughly over 2 million systems. You can find more information here:
The Reaper Botnet Has Already Infected a Million Networks
Massive botnet quietly harvesting 2 million vulnerable IoT devices, report says
It seems to be some sort of "successor" to the Mirai botnet, which caused a lot of stress back in 2016.
Consumers/home users' datas are useless to hackers, however your machine is precious to them, it will be part of a botnet when needed.
I agree!
I don't think that an attacker would care to spy on an average home user, unless it was a scenario like with the CCleaner breach where the data is checked to identify targets who may be able to be used to gain valuable information.
Banking malware might still target home users because individuals can have even hundreds of thousands of pounds saved up in accounts the credentials were stolen to, but maybe this would not be common. Either way, if banking malware successfully infects a lot of people, the offender will still be able to use the credentials to take money themselves or sell the credentials to others.
It seems that when it comes to banking malware, more focus is on ATM machines nowadays.
I think what you said about botnets is really important, because botnets provide a really big danger to us all in some shape or form. A successful botnet may have hundreds of thousands (or potentially in rare circumstances, millions) of zombie systems. If any of us are infected with a botnet, our own network resources can be abused to take down the very services we love using...
Even if our own systems are not infected by botnet malware, other systems used to perform operations owned by individuals who are unaware that their system/s have been infected may still have an effect on us.
For example, if a large botnet operation were to happen where hundreds of thousands of systems started a DDoS attack on a service like Netflix, the one day someone has a day off after working hard for a month with small rest may be the same day they are prevented from catching up with Netflix! (as an example)
- Jun 14, 2017
- 264
My opinion is it's easy to hack home user and use their Id for bad things is not new these days. And with this information hackers can target more and more peoples.
Hackers now targeting educational institute's and banks in my country I know a college which is infected with ransomware and surprisingly their financial department computers are affected with ransomware and the whole college is at cruises. Who knows who done this dirty job and their important data was without any backup. Especially college and universities computers are more vulnerable and security for some educational institutes is joke but now they are taking it very seriously after wanna cry.
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