4.9.3 The Internet

Question 1

What are worms, trojans and viruses?

Answer 1

Types of malware that can infect computers.

Question 2

What are worms?

Answer 2

Pieces of malicious software that can self replicate between computers, either within a network or by users downloading and running a malicious file.

Question 3

What are trojans?

Answer 3

• A type of malware that is disguised as a benign file that users can be tricked into opening.

Question 4

How are trojans commonly spread?

Answer 4

Email attachments or downloaded from malicious websites

Question 5

How are viruses spread?

Answer 5

• Can be spread between computers, over a private network, the internet or through the use of physical media

Question 6

How do viruses function?

Answer 6

• Require a host file in which to reside. These files are typically executable files, meaning that viruses can lie dormant in a computer until their host file is opened or run.

Question 7

What precautions can avoid malware?

Answer 7

Malware often exploit bugs in code that enable them to take hold of a computer system.
Good code quality is an important factor in preventing malware and small oversights by
developers can have devastating consequences. Other vulnerabilities that malware exploit
include a lack of antivirus software, out-of-date software and poor security.

In organisations, employees can be trained about the risks of opening suspicious email
attachments in order to reduce the risk posed by malware.

Question 8

What are antivirus programs?

Answer 8

Antivirus programs
are specialist pieces of software that scan the files on a computer and remove any
suspicious files.