📄️ Introduction to Malware
Malware is malicious hardware, firmware, or software inserted into a system to cause damage or gain unauthorized access to a network. Any type of malware can greatly compromise the security principles of Confidentiality, Integrity, or Availability.
📄️ Adware
As you navigate the web, you notice lots of ads popping up all over the place. There are so many popping up on your screen that it’s actually slowing down the webpage and increasing page load times.
📄️ Virus
You navigate to your client’s email. Immediately, you see that your client opened some emails sent from an odd email address. You open the emails and see that the client clicked on links and likely downloaded files from these suspicious emails. Uh oh. Did your client download a virus?
📄️ Worm
What type of virus is this? You check your client’s “Sent Emails” folder and notice your client recently sent the same email to everyone on their contacts list. The emails have the same subject line as the malicious email they received. It almost seems like the email replicated itself…
📄️ Spyware
Spyware is malicious code downloaded without a user’s authorization which is used to steal sensitive information and relay it to an outside party in a way that harms the original user. If the spyware contained a keylogger, a program that can record what a victim types into their computer, a threat actor could potentially gain access to sensitive information.
📄️ Trojan Horse
While the presence of spyware makes it obvious something nefarious was installed on the computer, was anything else installed?
📄️ Rootkits
What exactly is the Trojan Horse up to? What was it trying to do? You have to find the answer.
📄️ Ransomware
The rootkit allowed someone access to this computer. What did they do with that access? You realize that the rootkit was used to deny the user access to files on their system that contain lots of important company data.
📄️ Fileless Malware
It seems like nothing else could go wrong with this computer. If this was a game of malware bingo, you would be one step away from winning the jackpot. For fun, you investigate some command-line programs to see if they’ve been altered. Aaaand, did someone say bingo?