Threat Types
Adware
Tracks a user's personal information without the permission and passes to a third party
Backdoor
Creates a hole in system security in order to obtain remote access to a computer for spam, spying, or other malicious actions.
Backdoor Trojan
Masquerades as another, harmless program and allows other hackers to gain access to your computer through a security hole.
Bomber
Floods a user's inbox with spam mail until the system crashes.
Cellhack
A way to control cellular calls or to use a cellphone as a scanner.
Cloner
Copies the original information from the target computer to the destination folder on a remote computer.
Denial of Service
Clogs the network connections to a target computer by exhausting computer resource and wasting network bandwidth with requests for service.
Downloader
Automatically downloads and runs/installs/updates malicious software without the user's permission.
Dropper
Carrier program which installs a virus or malware on the target computer
Exploit
Program or technique used for breaking onto or attacking another computer through security breaches in the network.
Flooder
Overloads a network connection with massmailing or fast pinging, etc, in order to cause a Denial of Service.
Hacktool
Used by unauthorized user to facilitate an attack or intrusion upon a target computer in order to gain information or control its function.
Hoax
An overblown, hyperemotional warning about a false threats which urge users to forward them to everyone they know, thereby clogging networks.
Keylogger
Records keystrokes and makes a log of keyboard activity to obtain usernames and passwords for accessing other computers.
Linker
A cluster of viruses which can attack a target computer on several levels.
Macrovirus
Infects documents or replicates using the internal macro language of an application.
Massmailer
Infects target computer, then distributes itself from via mass emailing to other computers using the target computer's address book.
Nuker
Performs TCP/IP DoS attacks to crash Windows machines that had not been properly secured.
Pager
Sends ICQ messages (WWW pager, regular messages, URL messages) to several target computers simultaneously.
Passwordstealer
Steals and decrypts a password via bruteforce or algorithmic cracking.
Phishing
Sends a seemingly-legitimate scam e-mail to a user in an attempt to make the user volunteer private information that will be used for identity theft.
Pingers
Verifies that a particular Internet address exists and can accept requests.
Portscanner
Attempts to connect to all ports on a target machine to see if anybody is listening on those ports and if they are vulnerable to attack. Script--attacks an unsecured computer via instructions to Microsoft scripting applications.
Sniffer
Collects information sent in computer network traffic by standing between the sender and the receiver.
Snoofer
Sends spoofed messages that will crash a user's ICQ (A conferencing program for the Internet). Spammer—extracts email addresses from internet sources and sends unsolicited/spoofed email to these addresses, possibly installing a backdoor for later use.
Spyware
Gathers information from a target machine without the user's knowledge or permission. May use "bots" to collect information.
Trojan Horse
A seemingly harmless or legitimate program which either carries executable viruses or performs malicious actions against a target computer.
Constructor/Generator/Engine
A program made by a programmer for use by non-programmers so they can create a virus.
Worm
Non-hosted virus program which makes and distributes copies of itself to other computers using email or other transport medium in order to attack them.
