Computer Security Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: Computer Virus

A virus is code that attaches itself to a host program, spreads when that program runs, and carries a payload that may be trivial or destructive. Antivirus software is what opposes it, and Word and Access are ordinary applications.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Antivirus

McAfee is one of the long-established antivirus products, alongside Norton, Avast and AVG. Quick Heal is another antivirus rather than a category, which is why it cannot be the answer to a question about what kind of thing McAfee is.

Answer: B

Correct answer: It is a computer program

A virus is a program like any other; what distinguishes it is what it does - copy itself into other programs and carry a payload. It is not hardware and not a part of the operating system.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Spyware

A key logger records every keystroke and sends the record elsewhere, which makes it a form of spyware - software whose purpose is to gather information about the user without consent. Firmware is code stored in hardware and has nothing to do with it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Virus

Viruses commonly arrive as email attachments, because opening the attachment runs the code. Spam is unwanted mail, which may or may not carry anything harmful, and a portal is a website.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data a site asks the browser to store and return on later visits, which is how a site remembers a user between requests. Malware and adware are unwanted programs rather than stored data.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Antivirus

Antivirus software scans for code matching its database of known threats and removes what it finds. Adware displays advertisements, a key logger records keystrokes, and firmware is code held in hardware.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The business strategy of the company

Securing a system depends on how it is configured, how the network is laid out, and how capable the attacker is. What the company sells and how it plans to grow has no bearing on whether an attack succeeds.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Zombie

A zombie is a compromised machine that an attacker controls remotely and uses as a platform for attacks on others, which conceals the attacker's own address. A trap door is a hidden entry point into a program, not a captured machine.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Pieces of malicious code that make copies of themselves and spread without a host program

A worm is self-replicating and self-propagating: unlike a virus it needs no host file and no user action, which is why it can spread across a network on its own. An unsolicited email message is spam.