Three odd laptops
On Monday a laptop shows a message: "Your files are locked. Pay or lose them."
On Tuesday another laptop opens a strange shopping page every time it starts.
On Wednesday a third laptop is slow and will not shut down. Three faults, three different causes. A good technician reads the signs.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can match the signs on a device to the kind of harmful software behind them.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Malware | software made to cause harm |
| Virus | harmful software that spreads between devices and damages data and software |
| Adware | unwanted software that shows adverts |
| Ransomware | harmful software that blocks or changes data until money is paid |
| Trojan | harmful software disguised as a program you want |
| Botnet | devices under an attacker's control |
| Spyware | software that hides, watches you and steals details |
| Machine learning | a way for a computer to learn patterns from many examples |
| Zero-day | an attack that uses a flaw before a fix exists |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Each malware leaves its own signs
The core lessons say what each kind of malware is. A technician also needs to know what it looks like on a real device.
Some signs are shared. Many kinds show up on a scan report, a list from anti-malware software. Many also make a device slower.
Signs of each kind
| Kind | Signs you may see |
|---|---|
| Virus | Shows on scan reports. Device may be slower or blocked |
| Adware | Home page changes. Pages look wrong. Slow device, crashes, slow internet, searches sent elsewhere |
| Ransomware | Data you cannot open. Shows on scan reports. Alerts for the user |
| Trojan | Shows on scan reports. Device may be slower or blocked |
| Botnet | Slow internet. Device crashes. Device will not shut down |
| Spyware | Shows on scan reports. Device may be slower or blocked |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
Have a go
Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.