Dealing With Malware

The Process

Dealing with Malware is a process.  What I mean by that is that you need to treat it like any other form of virus and take the appropriate steps to deal with the threat.  There is no “silver bullet” software product that will deal with every possible virus as virus protection should be though of in the same way we protect our bodies from getting sick.  A holistic approach needs to be taken and best practices adopted in keeping your computer and devices healthy in the same way you work to keeping yourself healthy. Ultimately everyone gets sick and it follows that so do many computers.  When malware strikes you need to know how to deal with it.

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Malware on Windows, Apple OSX and Linux

While Microsoft Windows has the dubious honor of having the biggest virus collection available to it, Apple and Linux are not completely immune to malware.  Remember that malware means “malicious software” and it comes in many forms.  As a best practice you should never surf the Internet as a full administrator of the computer.  In Apple OSX the malware issue is mitigated greatly by the operating system prompting for an administrator password when the need arises.  Linux is somewhat different but the possibility of malware infection is still real, albeit dramatically lessened by the nature of the typical Linux audience.  Windows came late to the game with UAC and it serves as a layer similar to that of Apple OSX and Linux.  In each of the three operating systems mentioned here human nature still shows that people will typically type in an administrator password, or accept the UAC prompt.  So, the lesson learned here is that when an elevation of privilege is requested it should be carefully considered, especially if it is totally unexpected.

 

It All Starts With Triage

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Take a note of the key areas in the process diagram below.

  1. Triage
  2. Admin and Profile
  3. Initiate
  4. Cleanup
  5. Conclusion

The Malware Process

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Links

Antivirus Software Antimalware Software Online Scanning Services