Comcast.net Security

How is adware different from spyware? What exactly is a firewall? For all the terms you need to know to keep your computer safe, take a look through our Internet security glossary below.


Adware or Ad ware Software that displays pop-up/pop-under advertisements when the primary user interface is not visible, or which do not appear to be associated with the product. back to top
Alias Unfortunately, there is no one standard, accepted rule for naming malware, spyware and other types of malicious or unwanted applications. Hence, even though informal groups, such as CARO, have discussed conventions for virus naming, differences still exist between antivirus and antispyware software companies and research organizations. Thus where the term ‘alias’ or ‘also known as’ occurs, it refers to different names that the same malware or spyware may be given by other sources. back to top
Anti-antivirus Virus Another term for a retro-virus. back to top
Anti-emulation To reliably detect polymorphic viruses, scanners include code emulators to simulate the running of executable code and check whether it decrypts to a known virus. An emulator must stop emulating a program once it is no longer necessary to continue doing so and for performance reasons many emulators have simple rules for quickly determining a stopping point. Some polymorphic viruses include tricks attempting to defeat these code emulators by fooling them into quitting the emulation before the decryption code has finished its work. Such methods are commonly called anti-emulation techniques. back to top
Anti-heuristic Efforts by virus writers to avoid having their code detected as a possible new virus by heuristic detection are known as anti-heuristic techniques. What works depends on the heuristics approach of different scanners, but some code obfuscation techniques seem to clearly be anti-heuristic. back to top
Antivirus Virus The idea of making an antivirus program itself viral so it can propagate to where it is most needed is a very old one. Such a program would be an antivirus virus. It is universally agreed among reputable antivirus researchers to be a very bad - even dangerous - idea, and should be avoided at all costs. back to top
Appender A virus that inserts a copy of its code at the end of its victim file is known as an appender or appending virus. (c.f. Cavity Infector, Companion Virus, Overwriter, Prepender) back to top
Armored Virus Viruses that use special tricks to make tracing them in a debugger and/or disassembling them difficult are said to be 'armored'. The purpose of armoring is primarily to hinder virus analysts reaching a complete understanding of the virus' code. An early example of an armored virus is Whale. back to top
AV Killer Any hacker tool intended to disable a user's anti-virus software to help elude detection. Some will also disable personal firewalls. back to top
AVED AntiVirus Emergency Discussion list. A mailing list for professional antivirus researchers allowing them to alert other researchers to emerging or ongoing 'crisis' or 'emergency' virus events. These may be localized to a geographic or language-based region or known to be approaching a wordlwide scale. It also acts as a forum for these researchers to discuss such events, what precursors count as sufficient grounds to make posting alerts to users about a newly discovered virus and at what point involving the news media seems appropriate. Aside from the discussion list, another list facilitates the secure distribution of emergency samples and members of the list are expected to send samples of any viruses the organizations they work for consider worthy of raising public warnings about. Senior Computer Associates virus analysis staff are represented on the AVED mailing lists and board. (c.f. REVS) back to top

Adware or Ad ware

Software that displays pop-up/pop-under advertisements when the primary user interface is not visible, or which do not appear to be associated with the product.

Alias

Unfortunately, there is no one standard, accepted rule for naming malware, spyware and other types of malicious or unwanted applications. Hence, even though informal groups, such as CARO, have discussed conventions for virus naming, differences still exist between antivirus and antispyware software companies and research organizations. Thus where the term ‘alias’ or ‘also known as’ occurs, it refers to different names that the same malware or spyware may be given by other sources.

Anti-antivirus Virus

Another term for a retro-virus. back to top

Anti-emulation

To reliably detect polymorphic viruses, scanners include code emulators to simulate the running of executable code and check whether it decrypts to a known virus. An emulator must stop emulating a program once it is no longer necessary to continue doing so and for performance reasons many emulators have simple rules for quickly determining a stopping point. Some polymorphic viruses include tricks attempting to defeat these code emulators by fooling them into quitting the emulation before the decryption code has finished its work. Such methods are commonly called anti-emulation techniques. back to top

Anti-heuristic

Efforts by virus writers to avoid having their code detected as a possible new virus by heuristic detection are known as anti-heuristic techniques. What works depends on the heuristics approach of different scanners, but some code obfuscation techniques seem to clearly be anti-heuristic. back to top

Antivirus Virus

The idea of making an antivirus program itself viral so it can propagate to where it is most needed is a very old one. Such a program would be an antivirus virus. It is universally agreed among reputable antivirus researchers to be a very bad - even dangerous - idea, and should be avoided at all costs.

Appender

A virus that inserts a copy of its code at the end of its victim file is known as an appender or appending virus. (c.f. Cavity Infector, Companion Virus, Overwriter, Prepender) back to top

Armored Virus

Viruses that use special tricks to make tracing them in a debugger and/or disassembling them difficult are said to be 'armored'. The purpose of armoring is primarily to hinder virus analysts reaching a complete understanding of the virus' code. An early example of an armored virus is Whale.

AV Killer

Any hacker tool intended to disable a user's anti-virus software to help elude detection. Some will also disable personal firewalls.

AVED

AntiVirus Emergency Discussion list.

A mailing list for professional antivirus researchers allowing them to alert other researchers to emerging or ongoing 'crisis' or 'emergency' virus events. These may be localized to a geographic or language-based region or known to be approaching a wordlwide scale. It also acts as a forum for these researchers to discuss such events, what precursors count as sufficient grounds to make posting alerts to users about a newly discovered virus and at what point involving the news media seems appropriate. Aside from the discussion list, another list facilitates the secure distribution of emergency samples and members of the list are expected to send samples of any viruses the organizations they work for consider worthy of raising public warnings about. Senior Computer Associates virus analysis staff are represented on the AVED mailing lists and board. (c.f. REVS) back to top

Add Comcast Services Faster High-Speed Internet Digital Cable Digital Voice® High Definition TV