One of the inherent qualities of malware is the ability to hide from the system and the user. It is in the best interest of the bad guys to not be detected, and various forms of malware implement different methods of hiding. However, one method that is very scary is the ability to hide inside the components of the PC, rather than in the operating system. This is the case with malware targeting the BIOS or the unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) in more modern computers. The dangers is that software running in this area of the system can gain full control of any functions (such as all connected hardware) and bypass protections put in place by the operating system. It makes detection extremely difficult and will persist across system restores and rebuilds.
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