Y10 05 P25 Slides

Y10-05-P25: Malware & anti-malware
Learning objectives
In this lesson you will learn to:
• Define what is meant by the term ‘cyberattack’

• Describe the financial, reputational and legal damage that a
cyberattack can cause
• Describe the characteristics of and threats posed by different
types of malware
• Describe how anti-malware software works
• Explain why it is important to keep anti-malware software up to
date.
For more information and additional learner activities see Chapter 5.3
of the student book.
© Pearson Education Ltd 2020. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only.
Twitter under attack
In mid-July 2020, a number of high-profile verified Twitter accounts

were breached. Accounts associated with Barak Obama, Jeff Bezos,
Bill Gates, Apple and Uber all posted similar tweets instructing
people to send bitcoin to the same account. The tweets were
removed, but they continued to be posted throughout the day.
For a day, verified accounts were unable to post tweets as Twitter

investigated the attack.
Cyberattack
The news story we have just read is an example of a large scale

cyberattack.
Cyberattacks are malicious acts in which a computer system comes

under attack by unauthorised persons, who are generally known as
hackers.
Why might people launch such attacks?
Financial and reputational damage
WannaCry was a ransomware attack that affected hundreds of

organisations in 2017. The National Health Service (NHS) suffered
an estimated £92-million loss as a direct result of the attack. The
NHS also suffered damage to its reputation.
WannaCry is a known vulnerability that required a patch to fix.

Microsoft released the patch, but many NHS trusts did not implement
it. This meant that they were vulnerable to the attack. When this
came to light, many people were concerned about the lack of up-to-
date software within the NHS.
Legal damage
Attacks of this nature can have legal implications for the

organisations that are impacted by them.
In May 2020, the airline easyJet came under attack, when the email
addresses and travel details of approximately 9 million customers
were stolen. More than 2,000 customers also had their credit card
details stolen.
In June 2020, over 10,000 people joined a class-action lawsuit

against easyJet in an attempt to get compensation for the loss of their
data.
Targeting information
Often the purpose of cyberattacks is to steal information. This is

usually data such as email addresses and credit card details. This
information is often used for further crime such as identity theft or
fraud.
Information that is stolen might also comprise intellectual property,

such as source codes or patented designs that can be sold on the
black market.
Sometimes data is encrypted (using ransomware attacks) in order to

damage an organisation financially or reputationally.
What is malware?
Spyware
Keyloggers
Adware
Malware is any
Trojans software that is hostile,
malicious, or intrusive. Bots
Virus Ransomware
Worms
Anti-malware
One of the best defences against malware is anti-malware software.
This is software designed to detect, quarantine, and destroy

potentially damaging programs.
When a file enters a computer system, anti-malware software will

scan the file for known malicious code.
If the anti-malware software finds a problem, the malicious program

is quarantined so that it cannot affect the system. The user is then
notified and can decide to let in the problematic software or delete it.
Known code? Heuristic analysis?
Anti-malware programs can only work with information that is already

known about malicious programs.
However, new malware is being created all the time to exploit

different vulnerabilities. It is becoming more sophisticated and less
easy to identify.
As a result, it is vital that anti-malware protection is kept up to date,

so that known malware can be identified reliably.
But what if a piece of malware is brand new?
Wrap up: you have learned how to…

 Define what is meant by the term ‘cyberattack’.
• Digital attack on a computer system.
 Describe the financial, reputational and legal damage that a cyberattack
can cause.
• The cost of lost business and reputational damage, the impact of
legal cases and the cost of implementing software fixes.
 Describe the characteristics of and threat posed by different types of
malware.
• Viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and ransomware.
 Describe how anti-malware works.
• It detects, quarantines and destroys malicious code.
 Explain why it is important to keep anti-malware up to date.
• New malware is being created all the time, so anti-malware software
must be kept up to date so it can recognise the malicious code.

Y10 05 P25 Slides

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Y10 05 P25 Slides

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Y10 05 P25 Slides

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Y10-05-P25: Malware & anti-malware

Y10-05-P25: Malware & anti-malware

• Define what is meant by the term ‘cyberattack’

Twitter under attack

In mid-July 2020, a number of high-profile verified Twitter accounts

For a day, verified accounts were unable to post tweets as Twitter

The news story we have just read is an example of a large scale

Cyberattacks are malicious acts in which a computer system comes

Why might people launch such attacks?

Financial and reputational damage

WannaCry was a ransomware attack that affected hundreds of

WannaCry is a known vulnerability that required a patch to fix.

Attacks of this nature can have legal implications for the

In June 2020, over 10,000 people joined a class-action lawsuit

Often the purpose of cyberattacks is to steal information. This is

Information that is stolen might also comprise intellectual property,

Sometimes data is encrypted (using ransomware attacks) in order to

One of the best defences against malware is anti-malware software.

This is software designed to detect, quarantine, and destroy

When a file enters a computer system, anti-malware software will

If the anti-malware software finds a problem, the malicious program

Known code? Heuristic analysis?

Anti-malware programs can only work with information that is already

However, new malware is being created all the time to exploit

As a result, it is vital that anti-malware protection is kept up to date,

But what if a piece of malware is brand new?

Wrap up: you have learned how to…

You might also like