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INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, people always use different devices for their daily life situation. Sometimes

they face problem that affects the privacy and security of computer system. Malicious Software

or also known as “malware” is the most common problem by the users because that can harms

the files and data created and gathered by the computer users.

There are many types of malicious software that we can encounter but the most

commonly malware that is well-known by the user is virus. Virus can enter the computer system

without the user’s knowledge or permission. It can also corrupt the system and destroy your

personal data. These kinds of software are the once that we should pay attention because it affect

all the important files such as your personal data and information that may concern your security.

Malware is a problem that we should not ignore, because it is something that can steal

our personal information including passwords, emails, business transactions, etc. They can

manage to duplicate themselves and spread throughout the system without the user’s consent.

From the external devices you use to the different sites you interact with, we can notice that

malware is everywhere.
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RELATED LITERATURE

The malicious program, or botnet, can commandeer the operating systems of both

residential and corporate computing systems via the Internet. Such botnets are used by computer

criminals for a range of illicit activities, including sending e-mail spam and stealing digital

documents and passwords from infected computers. In many cases they install so-called

keystroke loggers to capture personal information (Markoff, 2010).

From virus infections to identity theft, the threats targeting your computer are various and

sophisticated. Computer threats are generally defined as any type of illegal activity that makes

use of the internet, a private or public network, or an in-house computer system. While many

forms of cybercrime revolve around obtaining sensitive information for unauthorized use, other

examples are focused more on invading users’ privacy.

The word “virus” is often used as a common term for all malicious programs, but

technically a virus is a program or code that attaches itself to a legitimate, executable piece of

software, and then reproduces itself when that program is run. Viruses spread by reproducing and

inserting themselves into programs, documents, or e-mail attachments. They can be transmitted

through e-mails or downloaded files and they can be present on CDs, DVDs, USB-drives and

any other sort of digital media.

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A virus normally requires an action to infect a victim. For instance, the malicious

programs inside e-mail attachments usually only strike if you open them. The effect of a virus

can be anything from a simple prank that pops up messages to the complete destruction of

programs and data (BullGuard, 2010).

A newly discovered mobile malware program that primarily targets Russian banking

customers can take over victims' SMS capabilities, allowing cybercriminals to intercept text

messages that contain bank security codes, and then use those codes to reset bank account

passwords (Barth, 2018).

Non-malware-based cyber-attacks were behind the majority of cyber incidents reported in

2017, despite proliferation of malware available to both the professional and amateur hacker.

However, non-malware attacks were only part of the story in 2017 as Carbon Black also reported

that ransomware attack are inflicting significantly higher costs and the number of attacks

skyrocketed during the course of the year (Olenick, 2018).

People should be safe on the Internet, but reality shows us something else. Malware

attacks are on the rise, and we need software programs to keep our devices secure.

A successful malware attack has great impact on both users and organizations, causing

data loss, financial problems, or disrupting operations. The best way to combat these online

threats is to keep your system safe using an antivirus program or antimalware software. (Rijnetu,

2017).
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Theories about self-replicating “living” software for both malevolent and benevolent

purposes made the rounds through technological circles as early as 1949 when John von

Neumann explored these avenues in his Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata.

Creeper is commonly accepted as the first known virus. Creeper was completely benign

in comparison with today’s long list of viral vehemency. It was a time when computer networks

were mostly in trusted hands and a virus was only something with which living beings could be

infected: Creeper was developed more or less as an experiment than for anything else, simply

demonstrating the ability for a program to self-replicate and move its way through a network.

Interestingly enough, the first technical computer virus also spurred the creation of the

first technical friendly computer virus, or “helpful worm”. A helpful worm is a type of virus

whose payload it is to do beneficial things for the system and the user instead of the kind of

malevolent things most viruses do, such as corrupting data, stealing sensitive information, or one

or several of a large number of other possible outcomes. In the case of Creeper, its antithesis was

Reaper, created by Ray Tomlinson.

In 1975, science fiction writer John Brunner theorized computer worms in The

Shockwave Rider. In 1978, John Shock and Jon Hepps worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research

Center. I couldn’t verify whether or not they’ve read Brunner’s novel. It’s likely that they did,

though, because they wrote what many consider to be the very first computer worm. They wrote

five different versions, all designed to improve computer efficiency by exploring a network to

find underused processors. But a bug in their programs caused computers to crash.
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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Our goal is to systematically study the different effects of malware to the internet users

here in Quezon City, and gain the representative conclusions and ways that may help them to

resolve the problem regarding on these kinds of software. Our research analyzes different

problems face or may face by users, especially malware, in a comprehensive manner.

This study aims to know the experience on malicious software (malware) of internet

users in Quezon City.

Specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions:

1. How does malicious software describe by the internet users?

2. Why does malicious software still spreading around internet community

3. What are the problems encountered in the use of malicious software?

4. What solution can be provided in the statement problem?

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Out of 3.75 billion, 6 students were used as a sample in conducting the interview. This study

limits its coverage on internet users here in Quezon City. Its main purpose is to identify the

experience of internet users in malicious software. It includes problems that they encounter and

to propose possible solutions regarding this problems. This study considers every aspect of

students’ personal information that has an impact on their academic performances. Each of the
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respondents is given same questions to answer. And this study focuses on their experience and

how will they protect themselves against these kinds of software.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In this study, our goal is to give them knowledge on how malware works and how they

can protect their computers against it. The people who will benefit the most are students which

usually uses computer for their education. Sometimes they are using internet to browse their

social networking site to be updated on what is happening in their society. But they didn’t know

that these sites are prone to malicious software like virus which can cause harm to their personal

computers as well as their mobile phones. Teacher will also benefit in this research. They uses

computer to compute the grades of their students, and update them on different activities in their

school.

DEFENITION OF TERMS

Anti-malware is a type of software program designed to prevent, detect and remove malicious

software (malware) on IT systems, as well as individual computing devices.

Computer Program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task

when executed by a computer.

Computer Worm is similar to a computer virus, but unlike a virus it does not need to attach

itself to an existing program. Instead, it can spread copies of itself from one computer to another

without being activated by users.

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Internet (Net) is global computer network providing a variety of information and

communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized

communication protocols.

Keyloggers are small programs or hardware devices that monitor each keystroke you enter on a

specific computer's keyboard, including typos, backspacing and retyping.

Malware (malicious software) is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of harmful

or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan

horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs. It can take the

form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software.

Software is a general term for the various kinds of programs used to operate computers and

related devices. (The term hardware describes the physical aspects of computers and related

devices.)

Virus is a type of malicious software program ("malware") that, when executed, replicates itself

by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code.

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Chapter 2

MOTHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the methods used by us the researchers in finishing our study. This

includes research design, respondents, sampling technique, validation and statistical treatment of

the study.

Research design

This research is designed as qualitative study, aiming to understand students’ and internet users’

experience on malicious software. The type of research method we use in our experiment is

interview method. In our interview we ensure that we want to influence other people that already

have encounter about malware. A qualitative research according to Denzin and Lincoln

(2005),“… an interpretive naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative

researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret

phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.”

Sampling

We estimated that there are many Internet users in Quezon City had already encounter any type

of malware. We interview students from different strands including the ICT, HUMMS, GAS,

and STEM. Out of this 4 strands we notice that there are more students in ICT strand that have

already encounter bigger malware because they are the ones who spend most of the time using

internet. The main subjects of our research are all about senior high who are studying in New Era
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University. According to Webster (1985), “a sample is a finite part of a statistical population

whose properties are studied to gain information about the whole.”

Source of Data

Our questionnaire contains different questions that may enhance our understanding on the

“Experience on malicious software of internet users in Quezon City The first five questions

(Statement of the problem 1) we use to ask are all about the description. What are their ideas or

understanding about these kinds of software, do they encounter malicious software? How? In

statement of the problem 2(5-10), we asked different questions regarding their experiences on

different malicious software that we can found in the internet. In statement of the problem 3(11-

15), we asked questions on what are the different problems they’ve faced regarding these kinds

of software, and lastly statement of the problem 4, we ask questions on how they will protect

their own computer system on these kinds of malware, For short In this five question we all ask

about our topic. The first question we used to ask is what are the experiences of the interviewee

have already encounter about malicious software. We several questions like, how did they

describe the malware? What are the kinds of malware they have already encountered? What are

the effects of malware to their computer? What is the reason why their computer is affected by

malware? These are the main question that we ask to our interviewee because we observed that

these are the main problems why the interviewee had already encounter malware. What are their

suggestions and their ideas that can help other internet users to become aware of different kinds

of software.
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Data Gathering procedure

There are many things we do before we start to interview. The step by step procedure we do in

our research is that we do is we think an appropriate topic that related to the things we want to

explore. The second thing we do is that we make the statement of the problem. Because we need

to know what is the purpose of the research we are doing. We also need to know the main

problems so we can just easily get the solution for our topic. The third thing we do is that we

found the participants for the research we are making. We also ensure that the participants who

will be participating have already experiences on our specific topic. We take a video on our

research for us to easily know the statement of the interviewee.

Data analysis

The start of our data analysis is that we reviewed the video we have recorded for us to

understand more on our research. Because of this research we discovered useful information

about the research we are doing. We also knew that there are still some software that can help us

to prevent malware from our computer like the Avast antivirus because Avast Mobile Security &

Antivirus Free app for use on Android devices. It includes a virus scanner, virus removal,

protector, network meter, app manager, app lock, backup, and a firewall on rooted phones. Avast

Mobile Security & Antivirus Free app for use on Android devices.
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CHAPTER 3

RESULTS

3.1 Descriptive (Description to the topic)

The description to the topic of interviewee is they are obviously serious about the question we

have prepared and they are sure of what they are saying because we can see clearly and they tell

us all the information that they know about malwares. Malware, short for malicious software, is

an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of harmful or intrusive software,

including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware,

and other malicious programs. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content,

and other software. Malware is defined by its malicious intent, acting against the requirements of

the computer user and so does not include software that causes unintentional harm due to some

deficiency.

3.2 Experience faced by the interviewee

The interviewee told us that they encounter a lot of malware. Base on the interviewee he told us,

“I encounter malware or virus specially in the internet im thinking about why I see a lot of adds

coming from nowhere and when I accidentally click it downloads an unknown file which is they

called virus and when I click the download now because of my curiousness it will go in the other

sites”. According to interviewee2, “sometimes I encounter on different sites there so much adds

and when I using my social media account and I am so curious about it when I click it and it’s

automatically download a file I have no idea how it downloads a file without my permission”.
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3.3 Problem faced by the interviewee

The questions regarding the problem faced by the internet users are overwhelming and it seems

like they have a lot of idea because they are emotional when answering our questions. According

to interviewee 1 he encounter this problem by “automatically downloading a file without his”

and the interviewee 2 talk about “unknown documents that automatically downloaded” in his pc

which is the same experience in interviewee 1 and after that he experience some lags in his

computer but the most common answer that we get from the interviewee is when you experience

in messenger that a file name is video.doc he click or open the file from messages and without

noticing you accidentally forward to someone and all your friends will receive it from you this is

a kind of malware that programs to double their number this are made by the hackers that want to

get your personal data or your own important data that saves on your pc.

3.4 Possible solution by the interviewee (recommendation)

Base on interviewee 1 this is a serious problem that we need to solve as soon as possible so he

recommend us to use antivirus so that we can help keep our computer healthy and the

interviewee 2 tell us how important to use antivirus for safety and to stop malwares. Base on the

interviewee 3 he recommend us some application for our pc like antivirus that are trusted that not

made by hackers like Avast, Kaspersky, & AVG.

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Chapter 4

DISCUSSION

Category 1 – Malwares

Conclusion 1 – Malware is intended to damage or disable computer systems it is also made to

access someone’s files and personal data or information like bank accounts, credit card numbers

and passwords. Malwares can appear in different forms like scripts, codes and other different

kinds of software. There are different kinds of malwares this includes viruses that will destroy

your files stored in your computer, Trojan horses that compromises the security of your

computer, worms that replicates computer programs, spywares that collects your information

without your knowledge, adware that includes pop ups in different websites and phishing that

tricks you to provide your information like social security numbers, bank accounts and other

personal information.

Category 2 – Safety

Conclusion 2- Anti malware programs is used to prevent and remove malicious software to your

computer. There are different antivirus software that you can use to protect yourself from

malware this includes Avast to protect yourself while surfing websites, PCProtect to protect your

computer from all threats and lot more that will help you protect your computer from viruses and

other types of malicious software. In order for the antivirus to be effective, the antivirus needs to

run in the background at all times and should always be updated for it to recognize new

malicious software.
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Category 3 – Problem

Conclusion 3 – There are different ways to avoid having malware to your computer. Install

antivirus programs to your computer to help you remove malwares in your computer you should

also be cautious when using or browsing the internet and you can also install firewall to your

computer. You will know if your computer is infected by malware if your CPU usage is

increasing, when your computer is slowing down while browsing, if you have problems

connecting to networks, if your files are being deleted, when a strange file or icon appears, when

your file names are changed, when programs or files appears or disappear without your

knowledge and when the memory in your computer is lower than it should be.

Category 4 – Solution

Conclusion 4 – Use proxy and avoid browsing age restricted sites, you can also use firewall to

block attempts to access your files over a network or internet connection

Recommendations

The following recommendations have been made for the improvement of students’ and internet

users’ understanding regarding malicious software:

Students – Students should know about malwares to help them avoid it because it may harm their

devices that contains lessons that will help them for their studies specially for ICT students that

always uses computers to do school activities and pass assignments and projects to their teachers

Internet users – Inters users should definitely know all about malicious software because it may

harm their computer while browsing the internet that may destroy or delete personal files in their

computer
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Students – As a student we should know how to protect ourselves from malicious software to

help us prevent losing files that we need for our studies

Internet users – Internet users should also know how to protect their computer from malicious

software that they can get from browsing the internet such as viruses that may delete important

files from their computer

Students – When a malware affects your computer it may delete or change important files in a

computer. ICT students save a lot of files including personal files and data that may be deleted or

changed

Internet users – Malwares such as viruses can easily infect computers specially those who always

browse the internet that may affect personal data of the user such as passwords or bank accounts

Students – Students can avoid being infected by malwares by knowing trusted sites where they

can do their research and download files that they need for their studies

Internet users – Internet users can protect their computers by downloading anti-virus programs

like Avira or Avast that can help them remove and avoid malicious software while browsing the

internet

Be responsible on everything that you are doing, practice safe browsing to protect yourself from

internal and external threats that are possible damage your system.