Lesson 4.4: Network Security and Business Implications

Question 1

Malware (malicious software)

Answer 1

Malware (malicious software) is any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network (by contrast, software that causes unintentional harm due to some deficiency is typically described as a software bug). A wide variety of types of malware exist, including computer viruses, worms, spyware, and phishing to name a few.

Question 2

virus

Answer 2

A virus is a software program that infects a computer by inserting itself into programs that already reside in the machine. When the “host” program is executed, the virus is also executed, possibly performing degradations of portions of the operating system, erasing large amounts of data, or corrupting data and other programs.

Question 3

worm

Answer 3

A worm is an autonomous program that forwards copies of itself to other machines in a network and could result in detriment of individual machines or the operations of the network.

Question 4

proxy server

Answer 4

Another preventative tool is the proxy server, a software that acts as an intermediary between a client and a server to shield the client from adverse actions of the server.