Which of the following assists a network administrator in reverse engineering malware and viruses?

Virtual switches are software-defined Layer 2 switches used to connect virtual machines within a hypervisor environment - they provide networking between VMs but are not themselves analysis or sandboxing tools.

A virtual machine creates a complete isolated operating system environment with its own memory, storage, and network stack, separate from the host. Security researchers use VMs to detonate and analyze malware in a controlled sandbox, take memory snapshots at key moments, and revert the environment after analysis - none of which is possible safely on physical hardware without risk of propagation.

VLANs are used to logically segment networks to control traffic flow - they do not provide an execution environment for safely running and analyzing malware.

An IDS (Intrusion Detection System) monitors network or host activity for suspicious patterns and generates alerts - it detects threats but does not provide an isolated environment for hands-on malware reverse engineering.