HackerProof: Your Guide to PC Security
Chapter 2: The Malware Gallery The Traditional Virus or Trojan
Malware, through most of history, have spread by user error; that is to say, the PC user takes some kind of action to trigger a virus into action. The classic example of this is opening an email attachment. The virus, disguised as an image file or some other common file type, springs into action once the user opens the file. Opening the file may result in an error, or the file may open as usual, fooling the user into thinking nothing is wrong. In any case, the virus required the action of the user in order to spread. Reproduction is made possible not because of a security flaw in a program’s code but instead through deception. In the late 1990s this type of malware, more commonly called a virus, was by far the most threatening. Most people were new to email and didn’t know that opening an attachment could infect their computer. Email service was far less sophisticated: there were no effective spam filters capable of keeping virus-containing spam emails out of inboxes, nor were there any effective antivirus solutions that automatically scanned emailed attachments. In recent years, technological advancements on both of these fronts have made it less effective to send a virus via email, but there are still millions of people who don’t have security software and don’t mind opening email attachments.
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