You are here: Home » Miscellaneous » malware

malware

Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner's informed consent. The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software. Malware is not the same as defective software, that is, software which has a legitimate purpose but contains harmful bugs.

The best-known types of malware, viruses and worms, are known for the manner in which they spread, rather than any other particular behavior. The term computer virus is used for a program which has infected some executable software and which causes that software, when run, to spread the virus to other executable software. Viruses may also contain a payload which performs other actions, often malicious. A worm, on the other hand, is a program which actively transmits itself over a network to infect other computers.

The related software:

Trojan horses
rootkits
backdoor

Anti-malware

Panda Internet Security 2010
Noton Internet Security
kaspersky internet security 2010

Software - malware