27Ara
How many parts of an average laptop can be compromised? and how to confirm they are not?
The majority of virus/malware is stored and persists on the hard drive, Therefore by formatting the hard drive or re-installing the operating system, the virus is removed.
However, the average laptop also provides other means of infection persistence, possibly via the CPU(cache), Graphics card, RAM, and Motherboard.
How can we check and confirm with certainty that the Firmware of the Graphics card has not been compromised, Or the BIOS, or that the hard hard drive itself has not been infected in a way that reformatting will not remove the infection.
Lastly, How many other angles of infection-persistence exist on the average machine?
