Understanding Threatware: Detection, Prevention, and Response

Types of Threatware

Since it’s an umbrella term, there’s plenty of types of threatware you can face on a daily basis. Some of them are only disruptive, others will be much more threatening such as ransomware.

Viruses

Likely, the most well known type of threatware. Viruses are generally considered only to be disruptive as they may delete or alter files and otherwise impact your computer’s capabilities. They often spread themselves by continuously infecting legitimate files, making removal more difficult.

Many famous viruses would be once called worms, but now these two types of threatware are mixed into one. Some examples that have caused major harm have been the ILOVEYOU and Mydoom viruses.

Trojans

Named after the Trojan horse in Greek mythology, trojans disguise themselves as useful applications, but perform various actions behind the scenes. As with the mythological horse, trojans usually allow malicious actors to take control of your device.

Some famous examples of trojans have been Emotet and TrickBot.

Ransomware

A type of threatware that’s usually spread through malicious files that’s intended to cryptographically lock all files on a computer system. As per the name, a ransom is usually requested to retrieve the password to regain access. Most ransom payments are requested in the form of cryptocurrency to reduce the likelihood of tracking the actors.

Wannacry has been the most famous example as it also functioned as a worm, spreading itself to other machines quickly and locking them as well. A killswitch was discovered shortly after the attack began, ending the operation early.

Spyware

It’s malicious software that only intends to constantly monitor a user and steal their information. To hide intentions and avoid being discovered, spyware is often bundled with legitimate software or installed through security vulnerabilities. Due to the malicious software’s secretive nature it can be extremely hard to uncover.

Adware

A type of threatware that’s less harmful and more annoying as it puts advertisements in locations where there shouldn’t be any. Additionally, adware may monitor infected systems, particularly user browsing activity.

Rootkits

Rootkits are threatware that work in a similar fashion to trojans. It’s malicious software that intends to get full control over a system while hiding its intention. Rootkits also usually come packaged with other types of malicious software and primarily perform various actions that make detection and deletion much more difficult.

How Does Threatware Spread?

A threatware attack has a few distinct vectors, although most of them require some action from an unsuspecting user. Various cybersecurity solutions are commonly implemented to reduce the likelihood of users interacting with malicious links or files.

Emails

One of the most common vectors of threatware attacks. Emails can be used to deliver malicious files, links, or interact with the receiver in order for them to give up important information. As such, emails are highly useful to any phishing or threatware attack.

Luckily, numerous security features have been implemented by popular email providers that reduce the likelihood of someone getting caught by malicious emails. Additionally, companies will also apply another layer of security through other types of software such as scanning emails for malicious attachments.

Malicious websites

Fake or malicious websites are often used for phishing attacks, however, they may also be used for what’s called “drive-by downloads”. Such a website will attempt to download files to a user’s system as they attempt to visit it.

These are less common as most browsers nowadays either prevent automatic downloads or request the user to confirm the download, reducing the likelihood of being affected by threatware in this manner.

Software downloads

Closely related to malicious websites, some software may be bundled with various viruses or other types of threatware. Usually, you may encounter such files through torrenting or crack websites.

How to Detect and Prevent Threatware?

While there are various advanced methods to detect threatware, most users will be way in over their head if they were to do it manually. So, detecting threatware is mostly prevention and usage of a few automated processes.

Back in the day, downloading and installing third-party antivirus software was the way to go. Nowadays, however, most operating systems have strong internal software that detects threatware or those operating systems are significantly less affected by threatware. You may download a third-party antivirus, but it’s no longer such a necessity as it previously was.

Firewalls have also progressed enough that the default configuration is powerful enough to prevent some threatware attacks. They won’t prevent users from downloading malicious files, but smaller attacks will be prevented.

So, the key nowadays is prevention and it can be done in a few simple steps. To prevent threatware from taking root, the first and most important part is regular software updates. Many attacks, such as the Wannacry ransomware attack, happen because people do not update their software when an exploit is found.

Good practices state that you should continually update your software. You definitely should, but if you slack on updates, be sure to renew everything once an exploit is found.

Finally, user training and safe browsing practices should be employed at all times. Threatware is abound everywhere, not just emails and websites, so having savvy users is the best way to prevent such occurrences.

What to Do if Affected by Threatware Attacks?

In many cases, threatware will happen suddenly and take advantage of the system quickly. There’s only a few options available, assuming it’s not ransomware.

If you think your machine has been affected by threatware, the best course of action is to disconnect from the internet and isolate the machine from others in the Local Area Network. Then running a full system scan with software is vital.

Unfortunately, even a full system scan may not be enough as you’re never fully sure if the threatware was eliminated. Restoring the system to a previous date is the better option.

If all else fails, completely erasing all data and reinstalling the operating system is the course of action. That may incur data loss and take time, but it’s the only way to be sure that threatware has been eliminated.