What You Need to Know About Fileless Malware

Fileless malware has been around for awhile now, but it gained in strength and numbers in 2016. Over the last several months especially, there has been a significant rise in fileless malware, and it is likely to attack more organizations now than ever before. That’s why more fileless malware attacks are expected to occur in 2017. Ensure that your device is protected from various types of malware by running regular antivirus scans on your device. Click here to scan and remove malware from your device now:

As the name suggests, fileless malware infects a device without using files. Usually, with malware, malicious files are installed on a device. Fileless malware thus makes it more difficult for antivirus programs to locate and remove malware because no files are involved. There are multiple forms of fileless malware, but they all typically bury themselves deep within in a system’s RAM to avoid detection. This type of malware is often used as spyware, ransomware, or to destroy a system.

Read More: Handling Malware that Purports to be Antivirus Software

How Does Fileless Malware Work?

Currently, the most popular way to carry out a fileless malware attack is by using PowerShell and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to infect a device or computer system with malware. Fileless malware can be a one-time attack, or else infect a system with multiple types of malware. Attacks also have a greater chance of infecting a computer or device if the device is rarely shut down.

For example, the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Convention involved fileless malware — specifically, hackers used PowerShell and WMI to gain access to the DNC’s system. Another fileless malware attack weaponized Office documents in order to gain access to PowerShell and then infect a system. Because of the way fileless malware is distributed, it is very hard to detect on a system. This makes fileless malware an ideal type of malware, since it can typically remain undetected on a system for a longer period of time.

How to Avoid Fileless Malware

One way to protect yourself from fileless malware is to stop it at the source. Make sure that your device’s software and apps are up to date and run regular virus scans on your device to ensure that your data and your device is protected from malware.