A technician is troubleshooting a Windows PC that displays frequent notifications stating the firewall has been disabled. The user confirms they did not make any changes to the security settings. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause for these alerts?
A primary tactic of many malware variants is to disable system security features, including the firewall and anti-malware software, to prevent detection and removal. While a conflicting third-party security application could legitimately disable the Windows firewall, or a failed OS update could cause system instability, unsolicited and repeated notifications of this nature are a classic and high-priority symptom of a malware infection. A corrupted user profile is less likely to cause this specific behavior.
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