Malware

Malware is a term used to describe malicious software. This software includes viruses, worms, spyware and trojans. Malware provides criminals with the ability to access private information such as passwords, bank account details and credit card numbers. Access to this information can result in identify theft, fraud, business disruption and the stealing of private information or business intellectual property. Malware can infect your computer in a number of ways. Common methods include-

• Clicking on false website links
• Visiting websites that have been infected by malware
• Downloading infected files and apps from the internet
• Opening infected email attachments

Some measures to take to protect against malware include-

• automatically updating your operating system
• automatically updating your software applications
• regularly backing up data
• installing antivirus software
• using multifactor authentication (this will be discussed in Topic 2)
• avoiding using public Wifi when sending or receiving sensitive information