Viruses and worms are two well-known types of malicious software. Many threats combine elements from different types of malicious software together,These blended threats don’t fit into any one class, so the term malware, short for malicious software,is used as a catch-all term to describe a number of malicious threats, including viruses, worms, and more. Malware presents arguably the largest security threat to computer users. It can be confusing to understand what the difference is between a virus and a Trojan,

Virus: A virus is malicious code that replicates itself. New viruses are dis-covered daily. Some exist simply to replicate themselves. Others can do serious damage such as erasing files or even rendering the computer itself inoperable.

Worm: A worm is similar to a virus.They replicate themselves like viruses, but do not alter files like viruses do.The main difference is that worms reside in memory and usually remain unnoticed until the rate of replication reduces system resources to the point that it becomes noticeable.

Trojan: A Trojan horse got its name from the story of the Trojan horse in Greek legend. It is a malicious program disguised as a normal application. Trojan horse programs do not replicate themselves like a virus, but they can be propagated as attachments to a virus.

Rootkit: A rootkit is a set of tools and utilities that a hacker can use to maintain access once they have hacked a system.The rootkit tools allow them to seek out usernames and passwords, launch attacks against remote systems, and conceal their actions by hiding their files and processes and erasing their activity from system logs and a plethora of other malicious stealth tools.

Bot/Zombie : A bot is a type of malware which allows an attacker to gain complete control over the affected computer. Computers that are infected with a bot are generally referred to as zombies.

Viruses, worms and other malware are a constant threat and the source of many problems and tremendous frustration for many users.

Stuxnet is a Windows-specific computer worm  first discovered in July 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a security firm based in Belarus.
While it is not the first time that hackers have targeted industrial systems, it is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems,and the first to include a programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit. It was specifically written to attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems used to control and monitor industrial processes. Stuxnet includes the capability to reprogram the PLCs and hide its changes.


The complexity of the software is very unusual for malware, and consists of attacks against three different systems:
The Windows operating system,
An industrial software application that runs on Windows, and
A Siemens programmable logic controller (PLC).
The attack requires in-depth knowledge of industrial processes and an interest in attacking industrial infrastructure.


These capabilities would have required a team of people to program, as well as check that the malware would not crash the PLCs. Eric Byres, who has years of experience maintaining and troubleshooting Siemens systems, told Wired that writing the code would have taken many man-months, if not years.


This One virus Category  will create havoc In Cyber -Warfare between countries…
Watch Out..


http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-071400-3123-99

A new Trojan affecting Android devices has recently emerged in China. Dubbed “Geinimi” based on its first known incarnation, this Trojan can compromise a significant amount of personal data on a user’s phone and send it to remote servers. The most sophisticated Android malware we’ve seen to date, Geinimi is also the first Android malware in the wild that displays botnet-like capabilities. Once the malware is installed on a user’s phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone.




Courtesy:http://blog.mylookout.com/2010/12/geinimi_trojan/

THE LOOKOUT BLOG

Nows lets see what is hacking about??


Lets see some basic concepts.

1. Hacker : any programming specialist who has expertise to enter computer network unauthorized or in case of ethical Hacker he can be an authorized person (yes of-course he’ll not tell you).
2. Cracker:is someone who breaks computer security without authorization in simple words some one who destructs things.
3. Hacking :act of illegally entering a computer system, and making unauthorized changes to the files and data contain within and using Data for illegal use(Bad thing).

What is Ethical Hacking?

• Ethical hacking – defined “methodology adopted by ethical hackers to discover the vulnerabilities existing in information systems’ operating environments.”

• With the growth of the Internet, computer security has become a major concern for businesses and governments. 

• In their search for a way to approach the problem, organizations came to realize that one of the best ways to evaluate the intruder threat to their interests would be to have independent computer security professionals attempt to break into their computer systems. 

Ethical Hackers

• Independent computer security Professionals breaking into the computer systems. 
• Neither damage the target systems nor steal information.  
• Evaluate target systems security and report back to owners about the vulnerabilities found. 
• Strong programming and computer networking skills.
• They learn about the system and try to find its weaknesses which are exploited by criminals(Hackers).
• They also learn about techniques of Criminal hackers- So that they can figure out how Bad guys work and think.
• some of them publish research papers.