Types of Virus and Malware

Terms and definitions from Course 1, Module 1

Computer Virus

Computer Virus

Malicious code is written to Interfere with computer operations and cause damage to data & software.

Malware

Software designed to harm devices or networks.

Brain Virus

The virus was created by Pakistani brothers Amjad and Basit Farooq Alvi to track and stop illegal copies of their program, while also gauging piracy. The virus could sometimes destroy data, but it was not designed to corrupt data or spread chaos

Morris Worm

The worm sought out computers running a particular version of the UNIX operating system and spread rapidly by exploiting security flaws known by Morris and other skilled programmers.

Social Engineering

A manipulation technique that exploits human error to gain unauthorized access to sensitive, private, and/or valuable data

Love Letter Attack

In the year 2000, Onel De Guzman created the Love Letter malware to steal internet login credentials.

Phishing

It is the use of digital communications to trick people into revealing sensitive data or deploying malicious software.

The Equifax breach

In 2017, attackers successfully infiltrated the credit reporting agency, Equifax. This resulted in one of the largest known data breaches of sensitive information. Over 143 million customer records were stolen, and the breach affected approximately 40% of all Americans.

USB Baiting

An attack in which a threat actor strategically leaves a malware USB stick for an employee to find and unknowingly infect a network.

Watering Hole Attack

An attack in which a threat actor compromises a website frequently visited by a specific group of users

CSIRT

Computer Security Incident Response Teams

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

An attack in which a threat actor impersonates a known source to obtain a financial advantage

Ransomeware

A malicious attack during which threat actors encrypt an organization's data and demand payment to restore access

Virus

A malware program that modifies other computer programs by inserting its own code to damage and/or destroy data

Physical Social Engineering

An attack in which a threat actor impersonates an employee, customer, or vendor to obtain unauthorized access to a physical location

Vishing

The exploitation of electronic voice communication to obtain sensitive information or to impersonate a known source

Adversarial artificial intelligence (AI)

A technique that manipulates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology to conduct attacks more efficiently

Cryptographic attack

An attack that affects secure forms of communication between a sender and intended recipient

Hacker

Any person who uses computers to gain access to computer systems, networks, or data

Password attack

An attempt to access password secured devices, systems, networks, or data

Physical attack

A security incident that affects not only digital but also physical environments where the incident is deployed

Social media phishing

A type of attack where a threat actor collects detailed information about their target on social media sites before initiating the attack

Spear phishing

A malicious email attack targeting a specific user or group of users, appearing to originate from a trusted source

Supply-chain attack

An attack that targets systems, applications, hardware, and/or software to locate a vulnerability where malware can be deployed