An attacker sends a piece of malware as an email attachment to employees in a company. What is one probable purpose of the attack?

An attacker sends a piece of malware as an email attachment to employees in a company. What is one probable purpose of the attack?

• probing open ports on the firewall on the border network
• searching and obtaining trade secrets
• cracking the administrator password for a critical server
• denying external access to a web server that is open to the public

Explanation: This is a malware attack. The purpose of a typical malware attack is to disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information, or gain access to a private computer system. Cracking a password cannot be carried out by a simple malware attack because it requires intensive CPU and memory, which will make its operation noticeable. A reconnaissance attack would be used to probe open ports on a border firewall. Similarly, denying external access to a web server is a DoS attack launched from outside the company.

Exam with this question: CyberOps Associate (Version 1.0) - Module 1: The Danger Quiz Answers