Comprehensive Report: Malware Threats, Impacts, and Security Measures

This report provides an in-depth analysis of malware, a significant threat to modern organizations. It begins with an introduction highlighting the increasing prevalence of malware attacks and their severe consequences, such as data breaches and financial losses. The discussion section delves into various types of malware, including viruses, which replicate and modify system programs; ransomware, which demands payment for released data; phishing, which tricks individuals into revealing sensitive information; and worms, which spread through networks by replicating themselves. Each type is explained with examples, such as the Stafford County cyber virus and the Johannesburg power company ransomware attack. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of incorporating robust IT infrastructure and security measures to mitigate the impact of malware and protect sensitive information. The report underscores the need for organizations to stay vigilant and implement preventative strategies to safeguard against the ever-evolving cyber threats.

Running Head: MALWARE
Malware
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
 Viruses..................................................................................................................................3
 Ransomware.........................................................................................................................3
 Phishing................................................................................................................................4
 Worms...................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
In recent times, malware is one of the most potent and emerging threats to corporate
organizations. The multinational companies are targeted on a regular basis by the use of malware
(Watkins, 2014). Falling prey to a malware attack can have severe consequences such as internal
damages of the databases and other huge complications for an organization. Unauthorized access
of bank accounts or personal credentials, data breaches etc. (Sharma & Sahay, 2014) are some of
the popular types of damages that an organization may face after falling prey to a malware
attack. If proper safety measures are not incorporated within the mainframe, the financial
industries, in particular, may face severe complications and huge losses.
Discussion
Malware can be defined as any malicious software designed specifically with the purpose
of disrupting a particular system or a network. All the confidential and personal information
stored within the attacked database of either an individual system or an organizational system
can easily be accessed by the attacker with the help of malware. In addition to that, deleting
extremely valuable information of the victim organization can also be done using a malware
attack. There is a range of malware with specific purposes that affect the working of a business
(Wangen, 2015). Predominantly, there has been a subsequent increase in the number of malware
attacks within the digital landscape scenario. With the emerging technological needs and
activities in terms of the internet, the vulnerabilities of the systems are also increasing. As a
result of this, they are highly prone to fall prey to a malware attack. The types of malware have
been discussed below.

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 Viruses
One of the most common forms of malware can be defined as a virus. It is a malicious
software, which creates replications of itself, thus modifying the system programs and
incorporating its own codes. The successful execution and replication of the virus affect the
specific areas, and those areas are said to be infected. In addition to it, downloading any obscure
document containing a virus can result in the damage of few or entire operations of the system
(Yang et al., 2013). Emails comprising of random attachments are also one of the popular ways,
used in recent times to spread a computer virus.
Recently, a virus infection attack was performed on the systems in the country of Stafford
(Cyber virus at Strafford County becomes criminal probe, 2019). In order to avoid the harsh
consequences, the IT personnel had to shut down that particularly infected network on 28th June
2019. The case is still ongoing, and authorities are investigating this cyber-attack without
providing much detail.
 Ransomware
In comparison to the other forms of malware, the concept of ransomware is potentially new
as well as emerging. In the year 2017, heavy distrusts were made by ransomware in e-commerce
and banking sectors (Mohurle & Patil, 2017). The prime focus of a ransomware attack is to hack
into the host machines or servers and demanding a specific fee or ransom in order to release the
hacked data or information. There are various ways to launch a ransomware attack, namely
screen wares, screen lockers and encrypted ransomware.
Recently, a ransomware attack was launched on the organization of Johannesburg’s City
Power, which is responsible for providing electrical power to the financial hub of South Arica

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(Johannesburg power company hit by ransomware attack, 2019). This attack had severe
consequences on the residents who had to spend several hours in the dark.
 Phishing
Phishing is a term often referred to as a type of cybercrime that involves contacting a target
individual or a group of individuals via telephone, e-mails or text messages. The attacker poses
as a reputed as well as a legitimate institution for the purpose of luring the specific targets to
provide sensitive and confidential information such as credit card passwords and banking details
(Jansson & von Solms, 2013). The information gained by the attacker is then used for accessing
immensely important accounts which might cause financial loss or identity theft. In addition to a
website phishing, there are various other phishing techniques, namely vishing (Voice Phishing),
smishing (SMS Phishing) etc.
In the year 2004, the first legal notice was filed against a teenager from California. The
teenager was responsible for imitating a legitimate American website, namely ‘America Online’
(What Is Phishing?, 2004). He successfully hosted the fake site and was able to gather personal
credit card information and banking details of individuals to access it for his own benefits.
 Worms
A computer worm can be defined as a type of malware that is standalone in nature. A
computer worm spreads throughout the system as well as other systems by the process of
replicating itself. The usage of a particular computer network for the operation of replication is
one of the most common ways, by which a computer worm spreads throughout the systems
(Mishra & Pandey, 2014). In order to gain unauthorized access to a system, they rely entirely on
security failures of the targeted system. The prime focus of a computer worm is to harm the

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network system by consuming a whole lot of bandwidth rather than modifying or corrupting the
system files, that is performed by viruses. One of the significant differences between a virus and
a worm is the way of spreading (Aziz, 2013). Both of these malware follow a different
framework via which they spread throughout the targeted systems.
ABC, CNN, The New-York Times, The Associated Press and Caterpillar Inc. are some of the
major companies that were affected severely by worms (Pitts, 2017). Almost 12,000 systems
were affected, and ABC news personnel had to make use of electric typewriters as a result of the
cyber-attack.
Conclusion
Malware has become a severe threat to many enterprises as it has the ability to break into
a particular security infrastructure of any database, system or network. As a result of this, many
security complications, along with other severe technical issues, are posing a tremendously
negative impact on the businesses. The ability of malware to access confidential and sensitive
information of an individual or a group of individuals is another aspect of this threat in the field
of cyber security. If proper measures in terms of IT infrastructures and security are not
incorporated within the organization’s mainframe, it can cause havoc on the industrial economy
graph.

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References
Cyber virus at Strafford County becomes criminal probe. (2019). [online]. Accessed from
https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/cyber-virus-at-strafford-county-becomes-
criminal-probe/article_c3ad5d18-63ea-5b38-b41d-a06bae80d7de.html [Accessed on 19th
August 2019].
Jansson, K., & von Solms, R. (2013). Phishing for phishing awareness. Behaviour & information
technology, 32(6), 584-593.
Johannesburg power company hit by ransomware attack. (2019). [online]. Accessed from
https://www.dw.com/en/johannesburg-power-company-hit-by-ransomware-attack/a-
49741227 [Accessed on 19 August 2019].
Mishra, B. K., & Pandey, S. K. (2014). Dynamic model of worm propagation in computer
network. Applied mathematical modelling, 38(7-8), 2173-2179.
Mohurle, S., & Patil, M. (2017). A brief study of wannacry threat: Ransomware attack 2017.
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 8(5).
Pitts, V. (2017). Cyber Crimes: History of World's Worst Cyber Attacks. Vij Books India Pvt
Ltd.
Sharma, A., & Sahay, S. K. (2014). Evolution and detection of polymorphic and metamorphic
malwares: A survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.7061.
Wangen, G. (2015). The role of malware in reported cyber espionage: A review of the impact
and mechanism. Information, 6(2), 183-211.

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Watkins, B. (2014). The impact of cyber attacks on the private sector. Briefing Paper,
Association for International Affair, 12.
What Is Phishing? (2004). [online]. Accessed from https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing
[Accessed on 19th August 2019].
Yang, L. X., Yang, X., Zhu, Q., & Wen, L. (2013). A computer virus model with graded cure
rates. Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications, 14(1), 414-422.
Yu, S., Gu, G., Barnawi, A., Guo, S., & Stojmenovic, I. (2014). Malware propagation in large-
scale networks. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and data engineering, 27(1), 170-179.