From the course: Cert Prep: ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)
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Viruses, worms, and trojans
From the course: Cert Prep: ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)
Viruses, worms, and trojans
- Malware is one of the most significant threats to computer security. Short for malicious software, malware objects infect computer systems and then perform some type of malicious action. They might steal information, damage data, or otherwise disrupt normal use of the system. As a security professional, you'll need to understand the different types of malicious code and how they work to infect systems. Every piece of malware that you encounter will have two components, a propagation mechanism, and a payload. The propagation mechanism is how the malware spreads from one system to another. Propagation mechanisms vary between malware types. In just a minute, we'll talk about three different types of malware objects and how they spread. The payload is the malicious action that the malware performs, any type of malware object can carry any type of payload. For example, a malware payload might search your hard drive for…