Software sabotage viruses and other threats

But there is a way out of the insider nightmare scenario. Unfortunately, insider threat is more twisty than vanilla external hacking. Employees are granted access to important data as part of their job. And while UBA can spot unusual access attempts even among employees, companies should take a multifaceted approach to internal cyber theft. This can include establishing and communicating employee privacy policies, and spotting and working with disgruntled employees to prevent them from becoming threats.

Academic researchers have made serious studies into the reasons employees commit insider cyber theft and disruption. Based on their work, they came up with three main motivation categories: theft for financial gain, theft for business advantage IP theft , and IT sabotage.

Stealing for money is the most obvious motive for insider theft. This type of fraud is more likely done by lower level, non-technical employees, usually in cooperation with outsiders. These were employees, typically with financial problems, who were using their authorization level as a data entry operator or customer support rep to modify credit histories, adjust benefits, or create false login credentials —all for a fee.

If we look beyond insider theft for financial gain, we start seeing a different type of insider. Why do insiders carry out their cyber crimes? Malware is a combination of 2 terms- Malicious and Software. So Malware basically means malicious software that can be an intrusive program code or anything that is designed to perform malicious operations on system. Skip to content. Change Language. Related Articles. Table of Contents. Improve Article. Summary All-in-one systems stretch themselves too thin, underperforming in most areas and severely limi How it works Why we're different Use cases Customers Pricing.

The Wall Street Journal explains: Companies are increasingly building out cyber programs to protect themselves from their own employees. Here are seven suggestions: Heightened monitoring of high-risk employees , such as those who previously violated IT policies, those who seek access to non-job-related business information, and those who are, or are likely to be, disgruntled i.

Deterrence controls , such as data loss prevention, data encryption, access management, endpoint security, mobile security, and cloud security. Detection controls , such as intrusion detection and prevention, log management, security information and event management, and predictive analytics. Inventories and audits for computers, mobile devices, and removable media i. Policies and programs that promote the resolution of employee grievances and protect whistleblowers.

Adware can become a serious problem if it installs itself onto your machine: it can hijack your browser Internet Explorer , Firefox , Chrome or Safari for example to display more ads, gather data from your Web browsing without your consent and prevent you from uninstalling it. The most common issues with adware is that it can slow down your Internet connection or render you computer unstable as well as distract you and waste your time.

One form of spyware, called a keylogger, actually monitors everything you input into your computer. In addition to monitoring your input and Internet surfing habits, spyware can interfere with your control over your computer by installing additional software, redirecting your browser, changing computer settings, and slowing or cutting off your Internet connection.

General Tips - Most computers come with embedded security features including a firewall. This prevents unknown programs and processes from accessing the system but is not a replacement for anti-virus software.

Some websites maintained by antivirus vendors offer free online scanning of your entire computer system, but be sure to verify the source: some sites which claim to scan for viruses actually plant malware on your computer. A cookie is a small text file which is saved on your computer by a website, mainly used as a means for session management, personalization and tracking while surfing the Web.

These cookies are usually deleted after you leave the website or within a few days of not visiting it. Other cookies, however, can be far more of a nuisance. These cookies will recreate themselves after the user has deleted them. A script will then keep this information in some other location on the computer, unbeknownst to the user. Other kinds are able to closely track your online habits and can last up to a year on a given server.

This type of cookie only lasts for the duration of your stay on a particular website and is deleted when you close your browser. These cookies can last up to a year from each time a user revisits the server.

These cookies are encrypted when being sent to and from your computer and the server, which means that they are more secure if someone intercepts or copies them. Browser hijacking is a malicious online activity where hijackers change the default settings in your Internet browser.

Links may appear that point to websites you would usually avoid, new toolbars and favorites that you do not want may be added and your computer may slow down overall.

Users will also often find themselves unable to return to their original settings once this is done. The purpose of this threat is to force you to visit a website.

These websites may also contain malicious scripts or viruses. A script is a piece of code that is loaded and run by your browser. While scripts may enhance and enrich online experiences and are often necessary to use the full functionality of a website they can also be malicious.

While you are generally safe from malicious scripts if you stick to trusted sites, there have been cases in which hackers installed malicious scripts onto legitimate sites. The only sure way of preventing script attacks is to control which scripts run when you visit a site. What are Cookies and What do Cookies Do? Skip to main content. Mobile Software Threats With an increasing reliance on mobile devices it is important to be aware of new and emerging software threats that target them specifically.