MOOC Learning Online Week 7

Main topic of this week's learning (week 3 of Introduction to Cyber Security) was malware, its types and characteristics and how to protect yourself aganist these

threats.

Malware is the collective name for software that has been designed to disrupt or damage data, software or hardware. There are several types of malware, such as viruses, worms and Trojans, which you’ll learn more about in the next few steps.

The main types of malware are viruses, worms and Trojans.

1. VIRUS. The virus is the type of harmful software which aims to copy itself and save into crutial parts of computer's data storage system. They attach to some aplication and get activated when the specifc aplication is used. They spread through internet connection.

2. WORM. The worm's goal is also to replicate, but it is its own aplication, spreaded through internet connection.

3. TROJAN. The Trojan is a seamingly legit software, which is causing damage in the background. Some Trojans transmit stolen information, others has other malicious interests.

These terms are very vagually used everywhere, but most people including me can not tell the difference, because usually the author of some text is not aware of the specifics of spoked malware.

One of the way how malware gets into a device is a piracy, which makes complete sence and I was wondering wha this is not the main selling point for anti-piracy movements.

The next part is focused on the phishing, activity to scam people using trustworthy persona to steal valuable information, often credit card numbers and other finance-related infromation, using email or social media. In this part is also mentioned spam emails, spoofing which is activity where scamer disquise themselves as trustworthy person. In this part the course teach you how to spot such message, like spelling mistakes, links or content.

I would prefer that in the click-to-pay advertisement the course to go deeper into topic of online and personalized advertisement, becouse than someone who does not know a lot about is not might better understand how adds can be spoiled by malicious people.

Than the bonets are briefly introduced, mostly how can someone control and overflow more devices to flood the target with spam.

As the protection goes, some tools and softwares are introduces, such as antiviruses and of course updates.

I must say I like this course better, because I am activelly learning new things, including not only gaining new knowledge, but this course also offers the practical solutions you can try to help yourself protect your data.