Malware
 Malware(software)   | |
|---|---|
 One of many apps from the Google Play Store which secretly installed the Exodus spyware on its victims' phone. | |
| Interest of | • HBGary • Dragos Ruiu • Security Without Borders |
| Bad software, such as spyware or viruses | |
Malware is an umbrella term for bad computer software. Colloquially, this may include software which just unwanted, or annoying ("scumware", "nagware", "bloatware", "shovelware" etc.) but the primary meaning is software which by design presents a threat to the user, such as computer viruses or spyware.
Contents
Pre-installed malware
In August 2019, Google warned that tens of millions Of Android smartphones come preloaded with malware, and that "if malware or security issues come as preinstalled apps, then the damage it can do is greater".[1]
After a vulnerability was found in the Lenovo Solution Centre, Lenovo left it unfixed, but changed the software's end-of-life date to make it seem less important.[2]
Spyware
- Full article: Spyware
- Full article: Spyware
Spyware is created to exfiltrate users' data or facilitate surveillance of users. Its origins include criminal gangs, individuals, private companies[3] and intelligence agencies.
Viruses
- Full article:
Computer virus
- Full article:
Computer viruses may go beyond spying to have a payload intended to destroy data and/or hardware (for example, Stuxnet, intended to damage the Iranian centrifuges used to refine uranium).
Installation
"AT&T employees took bribes to unlock millions of smartphones, and to install malware and unauthorized hardware".[4]
Examples
| Page name | Description |
|---|---|
| Backdoor | A covert means of gaining unauthorised and/or unmonitored access to a computing system. |
| Computer virus | |
| Fysbis | A simple yet effective Linux Trojan. |
| Ransomware | |
| Spyware |
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backdoor | “Every year, we learn about some issue in WhatsApp that puts everything on their users' devices at risk. Which means it's almost certain that a new security flaw already exists there. Such issues are hardly incidental – they are planted backdoors. If one backdoor is discovered and has to be removed, another one is added” | Pavel Durov | 5 October 2022 |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Operation-shady-rat.pdf | report | 2 August 2011 | Dmitri Alperovitch |
References
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/08/10/google-warning-tens-of-millions-of-android-phones-come-preloaded-with-dangerous-malware/
- ↑ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/23/lenovo_solution_centre_cve_2019_6177/
- ↑ For example, eSurv which created the Exodus spyware
- ↑ https://archive.fo/djFGd
