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In this lesson, you will explore common malware and how it infects a system.

Malware

An image showing a giant mechanized horse approaching a castle. The horse has a sign on its neck that says "Legitimate Disk Cleaner (I Swear!!)", and a malicious face is peaking out of the horse. Inside the castle is a happy computer.

While the presence of spyware makes it obvious something nefarious was installed on the computer, was anything else installed?

Ugh, of course. After more digging, you find a Trojan Horse. Wow, is there any download link your client didn't click on? 

While similar to Spyware, the _Trojan Horse_, sometimes just called a "Trojan", does more than just monitor what’s happening on a system. Trojans are a type of contained, non-replicating malware that disguises itself as legitimate software in order to allow scammers and hackers access to a user’s system.

Just like the Greeks hid inside a giant wooden horse to sneak into the city of Troy, this malware snuck right onto your client's computer while pretending to be a legitimate antivirus software!

### Your Suggestion
- Be wary of disk or computer cleaners as well as unknown antivirus software. Trojan horses often pretend to be trustworthy software in order to convince you to download them onto your machine.


Trojan Horses

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.

If the malicious actors block access to data or threaten to publish the sensitive data unless the client pays them money, that could be a case ransomware. The use of _ransomware_ has been skyrocketing as threat actors have realized it's safer and easier to rob a virtual location rather than a physical one! Ransomware is one of the largest cybersecurity threats facing industries today.

Blocking a user's access to data greatly threatens availability. While availability might not seem important, it can be devastating to some organizations. Imagine if a hospital or flight system lost access to their system or data! 

## Your Suggestion
- Regularly back up important files.
- Have a procedure in place for ransom requests. They should include a step in which the authorities are alerted.




A graph showing that the estimated cost of ransomware is rising every year. A pie chart showing that 70% of businesses affected by ransomware pay the ransom.

Ransomware

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...

Aha! Rather than a virus, which needs to be attached to a file or application to spread, you may have found a worm. 

A *worm* is self-replicating code that copies itself from computer to computer without user intervention. This worm could be just as dangerous as a virus.

The worm could also replicate so much that it overloads your client's system. By doing this, the worm could bring down the system and violate availability.

### Your Suggestion
- Follow the previous suggestions for adware and viruses.
- Monitor the computer for any unexpected changes! Is it slower than usual? Is there less hard drive space than expected? Have files mysteriously appeared or disappeared? These could all be signs of worms.


Worms

Wow, what a disaster computer. Hm, when you type, there seems to be a slight delay before some of the characters show up. What’s going on?

Oh no! It looks like your client may be in deeper trouble &mdash; they may have downloaded spyware as well. _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.

This means any sensitive data, like passwords, will soon be in the hands of a malicious third-party. While spyware usually isn't used to alter data, it definitely violates the principle of confidentiality. A malicious actor may have been spying on sensitive data your client was typing.

### Your Suggestion
- Noticing a trend? Be careful what you click on and install that trustworthy antivirus already!


Spyware

It’s your first day on the job at Cybercademy &mdash; a new cybersecurity organization that helps companies improve their security practices.

### Your Task
Identify various types of malware on an infected device and provide suggestions to the client on how they can prevent this from happening in the future.

But first, what is 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.

Throughout this lesson, you will learn how each type of malware gets into a system, what it does, and a short suggestion for how to be cautious against this form of malware. 

An image showing worms, bugs, trojan horses, hackers, and more malware all attacking a computer with a sad face on its screen.

Introduction to Malware

What a day! On that horrible machine, you discovered:

* _Malware:_ Malicious code inserted into a system to cause damage or gain unauthorized access to a network

* _Adware:_ Unwanted software designed to throw advertisements on your screen

* _Virus:_ A malicious self-replacing application that attaches itself to other programs and executables without the permission of the user

* _Worm:_ Self-replicating code that copies itself from computer to computer without user intervention

* _Spyware:_ Malicious code downloaded without a user’s authorization which is then used to steal sensitive information and relay it to an outside party in a way that harms the original user

* _Trojan Horse:_ A type of contained, non-replicating malware that disguises itself as legitimate software in order to allow scammers and hackers access to a user’s system

* _Rootkit:_ A collection of malicious programs that secretly provide continued, privileged access to a system for an unauthorized user

* _Ransomware:_ Malicious code that will block a user’s access to data or threaten to publish sensitive data until they pay money to the malicious actor

* _Fileless Malware:_ A type of malware that ‘lives off the land’ and uses legitimate tools and the user’s operating system to perform malicious activities like privilege escalation, data collection, and more. It’s incredibly hard to detect and almost always missed by antivirus software

### What's Next
While this may seem like a lot, the world of security is full of so many more potential threats! Let's read some articles and do some research on other attack vectors.




The same image from the Introduction to Malware exercise. An image showing worms, bugs, trojan horses, hackers, and more malware all attacking a computer with a sad face on its screen.

Review

First, you open the web browser. The first page it opens to is a strange page about a computer cleaner that's "guaranteed to make your computer run 10X faster!!". What an odd choice for a homepage.

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.  

It's clear this computer has adware. _Adware_ is unwanted software designed to throw advertisements on your screen. While not overly malicious on the surface, sometimes adware can come bundled with other, more harmful malware. 

With enough adware on your machine, this could become a real performance issue.

### Your Suggestion
- You tell your client to make sure to not click on any strange links or download any untrustworthy files. 
- A trustworthy antivirus software could also help with this issue.

Adware

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?

_Fileless malware_ is a type of malware that ‘lives off the land’ and uses legitimate tools and the user’s operating system to perform malicious activities like privilege escalation, data collection, and more. It’s incredibly hard to detect and almost always missed by antivirus software.

Unlike a Trojan Horse, fileless malware is not pretending to be legitimate software, it actually is a part of legitimate software. Fileless malware hides itself within the code of legitimate software, often altering existing code to make it malicious. 

Certain programs, like Microsoft PowerShell, are particularly vulnerable to these attacks. Someone could use this attack vector to gather data, use your device resources to mine cryptocurrency, or even install other malware. 

### Your Suggestion
- Did you download that antivirus yet? Still avoiding those suspicious links?
- Disable command-line applications and macros not in use on the device.
- Keep your applications and system up to date for the latest security updates.
- Reboot the computer.



An image showing "Happy Times Video Player", a trustworthy video player with a happy animal video on it. Hidden inside of the video player is malicious code that snuck inside the application's code.

Fileless Malware

What exactly is the Trojan Horse up to? What was it trying to do? You have to find the answer.

Scanning the device, you find that this horrible device just keeps getting worse; the Trojan horse was used to sneak a rootkit onto the system. 

_Rootkits_ are a collection of malicious programs that secretly provide continued, privileged access to a system for an unauthorized user. A rootkit can create a _backdoor_ on a computer to let a hacker in. This rootkit was able to gain admin access to this computer, and it will be incredibly hard to remove.

In this case, the Trojan Horse pretended to be a trustworthy antivirus software in order to install a rootkit. This means that a malicious, third-party somewhere has admin access to this computer and its data. This is a nightmare scenario for the confidentiality and integrity of your client's system. While some specialized tools can remove a rootkit, it isn't easy.

### Your Suggestion
- Back up any important data on this system and reimage it.


An image showing someone working on their computer. There is a black opening in their laptop representing a "backdoor". A hacker is connected to the backdoor by wires coming from their fingertips.

Rootkits

An image showing an email advertising "Click here for a free Pro Account!!!!". The email window has lots of evils bugs behind it.

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?

A *virus* is a malicious self-replacing application that attaches itself to other programs and executables without the permission of the user. It’s possible a downloaded virus could alter or delete data on the computer. 

If the virus was able to access or alter data, the confidentiality and integrity of that data is now in question. 

### Your Suggestion
- Just like with adware, avoid suspicious links and install trustworthy antivirus software.
- Immediately report suspicious emails to your IT department and never open them.
