Cyber Weapons

Cyber weapons typically used during a cyberattack-

• Malware

• Virus

• Worm

• Spyware

• Rootkit

• Trojan

Malware-

•Malware is any malicious software.

•Its all about intent of the user

•Malware has malicious intent

•It can be otherwise legitimate software

•It covers all the categories we will now discuss.

Virus-

• A virus operates by inserting or attaching itself to a legitimate program.

• Boot sector viruses operate by attempting to install their code into the boot sector of either a form of storage media like a flash drive or into the hard disk of the targeted computer (Szor, 2005).

• Macro viruses are also a popular way to infect systems by using a common weakness in a variety of popular programs like Excel, Word, and PDFs (Szor, 2005)

• Examples include Storm worm virus.

Worms-

• Computer worms are similar to viruses in that they replicate functional copies of themselves and can cause the same type of damage.

• In contrast to viruses, which require the spreading of an infected host file, worms are standalone software and do not require a host program or human help to propagate.

• Examples include RTM worm in 1989 and the SQL Slammer in 2003 worm attacks vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL Server and was the fastest spreading worm of all time

• Diagram shows the geographical spread of Slammer in the 30 minutes after its release.

Spyware-

• The concept of spyware is more around purpose than anything in the nature of the code.

• Spyware includes keyloggers, screen grabbers and other component which spy on the user.

• Even find my iphone has been called spyware.

• It can be a virus, worm or a commercial program.

Trojan-

• It is a harmful piece of software that looks legitimate. Users are typically tricked into loading and executing it on their systems.

• Unlike Viruses and Worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

• Examples include Rakhni Trojan and Tiny Banker