Malware Analysis: An Introduction

The paper will begin with an introduction describing the various types of malware. Types of malware described include Virus, Worms, Trojans, Adware, Spyware, Backdoors and Rootkits that can disastrously affect a Microsoft Windows operating system. The second section will discuss the basics of an incident response plan. A brief description of the steps of an incident response plan will be described. The role of malware analysis and what steps it pertains to in an incident response plan will be described. The next section will discuss the goals to be accomplished by performing malware analysis. During this section, a fictitious worm will be described to provide examples of the goals behind malware analysis.