A recent report by McAfee showed that malware is growing in volume and sophistication. This means that having the correct virus and spyware removal tools are becoming more critical because protecting your computer is becoming more difficult.
This information was released by security provider McAfee on Thursday, February 21, in its Threats Report for the fourth quarter of 2012. It showed that the number of new malware in the fourth quarter (October through December) of 2012 had nearly tripled from the first quarter (January through March) of 2010.
Malware is a word commonly used for malicious software, which is any type of software that is intended to cause harm to a computer or its user by stealing or corrupting information. This includes viruses and spyware, but also includes things like worms, which are more sophisticated versions of viruses; Trojan horses, which are viruses that are designed to look like a helpful or benign program; and adware, which places unwanted advertising on a computer that is less malicious but annoying nonetheless. Another malware is a backdoor program, which provides a hacker remote access to a computer.
Virus and spyware removal tools must be up to date
Developers of malware are getting more devious as they have started to combine attributes of different types of malware to create more sophisticated malware that can cause more damage to your computer. For example, a Trojan horse with a backdoor would mean someone could have access to your computer without raising any suspicions.
McAfee’s report also showed the number of Web pages that host malware rose about 70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. This means that these Web pages are surpassing botnets as the most common way to infect your computer with malware. The number of mobile malware is increasing exponentially as well. This type of malware can be transmitted to your smartphone, which could then infect your computer when you sync to two together.
Having the correct virus and spyware removal tools for your computers to combat this new level of sophistication means having the right software for your computer and making sure it is updated as soon as updates are available. If you are not comfortable about doing this yourself, you may want to consider contacting a computer tech support company that provides virus and spyware removal services.
This is especially true for anyone with critical information on a computer or local network that would be a target for a cyber attack. If you cannot afford to have information on your computer corrupted or stolen, then you need to make sure to have that information protected as much as possible.
