quarantine cybrary

Quarantine

Quarantine in the cybersecurity world happens when files containing malware are placed into isolation for future disinfection or examination. This strategy puts the malware in a specific area of the …

polymorphic virus cybrary

Polymorphic Virus

A Polymorphic Virus is a type of ‘shape-shifting’ virus, producing malicious code that is able to replicate itself with new signatures but identical payloads over and over again. These viruses …

parasitic virus cybrary

Parasitic Virus

A Parasitic Virus, also known as a file virus, is spread by attaching itself to executable programs. When a program infected with a parasitic virus is opened, the virus code …

boot sector virus

Boot Sector Virus

A Boot Sector Virus is a virus that infects the ‘boot sector’ of floppy disks or the ‘Master Boot Record’ (MBR) of hard disks (some infect the boot sector of …

macro virus

Macro Virus

A Macro Virus is a virus that adds its code to the macros embedded within documents, spreadsheets, and other data files. The first macro virus appeared in July of 1995 infecting …

Memory-Resident Virus

A Memory-Resident Virus is a virus that is located in the memory of a computer, even after the ‘host’ application or program has stopped running (been terminated). Non-Memory-Resident Viruses are …

Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a computer worm that was uncovered in 2010, which many people believe was in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet was targeting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) …

Melissa Virus

The Melissa Virus is malware that was was deployed in late March of 1999. A programmer by the name of David Lee Smith took over an America Online (AOL) account …

ILOVEYOU Virus

The ILOVEYOU Virus, also known as, the Love Bug, is a computer worm that infected over 10 million Windows computers in May of 2000. The virus was an email that …

trojan horse cybersecurity breaches

Trojan Horse

A Trojan Horse is a computer program that appears to have a useful function, but also has a hidden and potentially malicious function that evades security mechanisms, sometimes by exploiting …

Virus

A virus is a computer program that can replicate itself, infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user, and then spread or propagate to another computer. An example …

cybersecurity worm

Worm

A worm is a self-replicating, self-propagating, self-contained program that uses networking mechanisms to spread itself to other machines. Worms can spread through software vulnerabilities or arrive in attachments or malicious …