Question

You are a PC technician performing maintenance on a workstation that was recently dropped off at your shop. During maintenance, you discover unusual behavior typical of a malware infection. To properly clean the workstation, you must first determine what type of malware is likely causing the infection based on what you know of various malware characteristics.

Instruction:
Use the drop-down list to match each malware type to its symptoms or character

Symptoms or Characteristics worms
Boot Sector, macro, polymorphicInfects firmware codeObtains high level privileges, hiding from OSOften paired with keyloggerPackaged as useful applicationReplication requires user interactionSelf-containedSelf-replicatingTracks user activityUsed by attacker to conceal actions

Boot Sector, macro, polymorphicInfects firmware codeObtains high level privileges, hiding from OSOften paired with keyloggerPackaged as useful applicationReplication requires user interactionSelf-containedSelf-replicatingTracks user activityUsed by attacker to conceal actions

Answer 1

PC technicians diagnose and remove malware by analyzing its characteristics which include self-replication, infection of boot sectors or firmware, obtaining high-level privileges, tracking user activity, being packaged as useful applications, and requiring user interaction for replication.

Step-by-step explanation:

You are correct that understanding the characteristics of malware is crucial for a PC technician to diagnose and solve issues caused by infections. Various types of malware exhibit distinct behaviors and knowing these can be instrumental in identifying the infection and applying the appropriate removal techniques. Let's consider some common types of malware and their attributes:

• Worms are self-replicating and can spread independently across networks without user interaction.
• Boot Sector viruses, which include macro and polymorphic types, infect the boot sector of a storage device and are recognized for hiding their code to avoid detection. Some can change their appearance (polymorphic) to evade antivirus software.
• Malware that infects firmware operates at a very low level, often within the BIOS or hardware of the PC, and can persist despite attempts to remove it, like reformatting the hard drive.
• Rootkits obtain high-level privileges and are effective at hiding from the operating system, making them difficult to detect and remove.
• Spyware often works alongside a keylogger to track user activity and obtain sensitive information.
• Trojans are deceitfully packaged as useful applications, but once executed, they perform malicious tasks.
• Adware and some worms might require user interaction for replication, often tricking the user into executing them by clicking on an attachment or download link.

Each malware type has a distinct method of infection and operation. By analyzing the symptoms of a compromised system, a PC technician can employ the appropriate strategy to clean the system and ensure it is free from the malicious software.