What is wiper malware
When we talk about wiper we are referring to one of the most dangerous types of threats that we can encounter. It is because it puts at risk our personal information, documents and any type of files that we have stored. Its objective is none other than to erase the content on a memory or disk.
Users can create backups to save their files to external disks, for example. However, if that memory is infected by this type of malware, we could lose all content.
The same would happen if a USB stick or any other device is infected. The purpose of this threat is to eliminate everything in its path. We are not facing something new, since this problem has been with us for a long time. Of course, we have seen how it has been perfected in recent years to not be detected and be even more harmful.
How wiper malware works
The way to act consists, as we have indicated, in delete content found in its path. Now, how does this threat infect? We can say that the sources of entry of this variety of malware are different, as is the case with many others.
Something very common is that we become infected through a malicious file that we have opened in the email. It may happen that for example we receive an e-mail where we are invited to access a link to download a program or some file that is supposedly legitimate and is going to provide us with something. However, in reality it is a scam, an attack that tries to download malicious software to subsequently carry out its attacks.
It may also happen that when browsing we access a malicious link. For example if we are on a third party site and we access a link to log in, download software or any generic action, but in reality we are entering a site that has been maliciously designed and is controlled by hackers.
How to avoid wiper malware
What can we do to avoid being a victim of this type of problem? This is the key to everything. The objective is to avoid not only the wiper malware that can erase our disks and memories, but to avoid any other attack that compromises us. Luckily we can take into account different factors that we are going to explain.
The most important thing will always be the common sense. We have seen that this type of threat, as well as almost any other, usually requires user interaction. For example clicking on a link, installing malicious software, opening an attached file by e-mail… In short, the hacker is going to need some kind of action on the part of the victim. We must always keep common sense in mind.
It will also be interesting to have security programs and tools. A good antivirus can detect and eliminate malware that enters our devices. In this way we can prevent it from infecting us and carrying out its attacks for which it was designed.
One last recommendation that many users overlook is the importance of always having equipment updated correctly. There are many occasions when vulnerabilities arise that can be exploited by attackers to introduce malware. We must install the latest available security patches. Only in this way can we really secure our equipment and prevent these failures from being exploited.
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