What type of analysis is conducted to understand the behavior of malware?

Behavioral analysis is a crucial method used to understand how malware operates and interacts with its environment. This approach focuses on observing the actions of malware during execution, identifying patterns such as file system changes, network communications, and processes initiated by the malicious code. By analyzing these behaviors, cybersecurity professionals can determine the intent of the malware, its potential impact, and the techniques it employs to achieve its objectives.

Behavioral analysis is particularly effective because it allows researchers to see how malware actually functions in a real or controlled environment, providing insights into its capabilities and potential dangers. This is vital for developing effective countermeasures and defenses against such threats. It differs from static analysis, which involves examining the code without executing it, as it lacks the dynamic perspective offered by observing malware in action. Additionally, live analysis and post-mortem analysis are other methods that may provide useful information, but they do not focus as directly on the actions and behaviors exhibited by malware during execution.