21st Century Malware

Submitted By baltimorehokie
Words: 520
Pages: 3

21st Century Malware
Although IA has a wide range of topics to choose from, my presentation will be on malware. Not the typical malware found on your computer from “CleanmyPC.com” but the malware that may be sitting at your home right now. In the article “Chinese appliances are shipping with malware-distributing WiFi chips” Lee Mathews highlights the concerns of foreign products that are built with trojan horses. In this summary I will highlight some of the newest ways that hackers and foreign countries are fishing for information. Malware is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a computer(s). It is the 21st century and technology has grown causing almost everything is connected to the internet; this includes our cell phones, computers and even televisions to name a few. Although these devices can be hacked we all are usually aware of their capabilities and can configure them with passwords so that they are less vulnerable to hackers. Unfortunately these aren’t the devices highlighted in this article. The devices mentioned in this article are the ones you’re least likely concerned about. Modified small appliances such as irons and tea kettles are at the root of this discussion. Recently malware has evolved from computer viruses and adware to malicious chips that can be implanted to almost anything. Small appliances being shipped from China have been outfitted with computer chips designed to sniff and latch onto any unsecure wireless network within 200 meters. Once connected the malware was build specifically to infect your computer with spam-serving software. For most of us this isn’t a concern, we have our home networks password protected running the latest security protocols. What we may not consider are those networks at Starbucks and other consumer stores that have free wireless. These small appliances starting popping up in Russia but researchers are anticipating them coming up more often closer to home. Right now this new breed of malware is at its beginning stages. Compromised computers are