When you are dealing with most malware, you pretty much know how they are going to act on your system. Even the worse of them seem to follow a pretty steady pattern that will help you to get rid of them. But there is one piece of malware that even security researchers hate to hear the name of. When you know that you have one of these on the system, it is going to be a long day of trying to get it out. The piece of malware that we are talking about is known as a Rootkit and it is one of the most damaging pieces of malware out on the internet right now. We will go over the basics of what a rootkit is and look at what kind of damage it can do to your system. We will also look at the tools that you need to do to get it off of your system.
What is a rootkit?
A rootkit is program that is able to get into the kernel level of our system which means that it is able to hide from scanning programs that is on your computer. For those programs to be able to sniff it out they need to be at kernel level as well. For the people who might not know, the kernel level of the computer is the part where a lot of the sensitive things that your computer can do, happens. It is basically the part of the operating system that communicates with the hardware of the machine. You do not want user level access programs to communicate with the hardware directly so the kernel is the break off point. While we know a lot more about rootkits now than we did before, they can still be a pain to get rid of off of your system.
The damage that it can do
A rootkit, once it is in your system, can give the attacker unlimited power over your computer. They are able to assume the rights as a power user and they will have the same administrative rights that you have, maybe even more. This is because they are able to access the kernel. This is the main objective for any rootkit attacker that is trying to get into someone’s system. When an attacker is able to get this deep, most of the time, they will turn your computer into a simple node. This means that anything illegal that they want to try and hide, they will do on your computer. This means that if someone is going to get into trouble, it will be you.
How can I get rootkit off my system?
In the past it was very hard to get an infection like this off of your system. Formatting the system was the only way that you can get it off. Now there is plenty of software out on the market that will help you get the rootkit off of your system. Download one of these programs and hopefully you will be back to normal.
A rootkit is one of the more serious threats on the internet. If you get one on your system, take care of it right away.
a security back door is a very dangerous thing in the world of software. Most people probably do not even know what that means but if you make your living creating software or protecting computer systems then you know very well what a back door is. It is a hole in the software that is put there intentionally by the person who created it. Sometimes the hole is put there for legitimate reasons and at other times the holes is put there maliciously. Let’s have a discussion on how dangerous of a hole a back door in the software is and how you can tell if the software that you installed on your computer system has one.
A back door explained in a little more detail
While we gave you a little bit more detail on what a back door is earlier on in the article, I feel as we should explain it a little bit more for the people who have never had exposure to the term before. A back door is less of a hole and more like a piece of code that only the creator of the software knows that it is there. This code allows you to have access to the software after it has been deployed somewhere else. You are able to get different pieces of information about the status of the software. Some of that information is related to the users system that the software is now installed on. Sometimes, if the software is built by a team of people, only one person on the team might know that the code is there. While most large software teams have code reviews to check and see if something like this is happening, the process is not one hundred percent fool proof. As we said before, some companies place the back door on their software on purpose. This is either because they use it as a security measure to help the client or they are required to by the government. Sometimes the government feels that if a piece of software has too much power then they need a way to get in. You would be surprised at some of the software that has a government sponsored back door in it.
The security implications of a back door in software
It is probably obvious to you why a back door in you software could be a problem. At anytime, the creator of the software that you installed has access to your system. You can never know if the person has good intentions or bad. And it doesn’t matter; nobody should have access to your computer unless they have your permission. Another way that a back door can hurt you is the fact that if it is found by a black hat hacker then they now have access to a very serious security hole in your system. Even if the back door was placed in there by the company for good intentions, the fact that the hackers have found it can mean trouble to you.
If you want to know if your software has a back door in it, try to look it up in Google. Most people do not have the expertise to examine their software themselves. If you hear about problems with a back door then it might be best to uninstall it.
Making your computer system safe has gotten easier over the years. In the past, when the internet started to become available in most people households, it was hard for these people to try and protect their systems. The online security field was young and even the professionals at the time did not know the breadth of attacks that would happen. Now there are plenty of tools for both the professionals and the amateurs to use to be able to protect their system. One of the best tools that a person who is either can use to protect themselves is a firewall on their system. A firewall offers you unprecedented protection from the bad guys online. In the following paragraphs, we will talk about what a firewall is and we will also discuss the difference between software and a hardware firewall.
What exactly is a firewall?
There are many different types of attacks that can happen to your computer when you hook it up online. One of the earliest types of attacks is when people would try to gain access to your computer remotely. They would do this by trying to find a weak port on your system. A weak port means one that is open with no protection. If the black hat hacker did not go in the port manually themselves, they would send in a software attack, such as a worm, to go through it. When professionals saw that this type of attack was becoming more prevalent, they started to create software that would protect the end users from it. That software was known as a firewall and it is what we use to this very day to protect our home and work networks. There are several different types of firewalls out there. Many security companies add their version of a firewall to their software protection suites. But the main thing that you should know besides the brand of a firewall is the difference between software and a hardware firewall.
What is the difference between a software and hardware firewall?
The differences are quite simple really and you can probably tell what they are just by the names. A hardware firewall is a firewall that is either on a dedicated machine just for the firewall or on the home router that you just bought. Hardware firewalls are considered the best when it comes to protecting your network and your system. If you are only going to have one of the two on your system then I would suggest a hardware firewall be active. A software firewall is one that you install on your computer system. It is also very useful and depending on which one that you install, can be very effective. With a software firewall, you may have more configuration control than a hardware firewall. The problem with a software firewall is that some attacks can get past it easier than a hardware firewall. It is easier to trick the software on a user’s machine than on a dedicated firewall machine.
If you want the best protection on your system then we suggest that you have both a hardware and a software firewall installed. That way you will have all of your ports on both the system and the network doubly protected.