What is Malware?
July 31, 2008 by Antivirus Ware.com - Download Norton Antivirus software instantly!Software that is designed with the sole purpose of infiltrating, infecting, or damaging a computer system is called malicious software, or as it is more commonly referred to, malware. The three main characteristics of malware is that it is annoying, hostile, and intrusive program code or software. Unfortunately, there are still a number of computer users who are not familiar with the term or don’t use it. They will generally refer to malware as a virus which is incorrect since not all malware is a virus.
Malware is defined more by the perceived intentions of its creators rather than the actual “features” (if you want to refer to them as such). Malware includes all of the following:
- computer virus(es)
- dishonest Adware
- rootkits
- Spyware
- Trojan Horses
- worms
Additionally, any malicious or unwanted software can be classified as malware. However, malware should not be considered the same thing as defective software which contains “bugs”, but was created for legitimate reasons. In several of the American states, such as California and West Virginia just to name two, malware is defined as a computer contaminant in some of the state’s legal codes.
Today, the harsh reality is that the majority of most computer code out there may in fact be malicious in nature. Earlier in the year (2008), the preliminary results of Symantec sensors have indicated that the rate at which malicious code and a variety of unwanted programs are released is now exceeding that of the legitimate software applications.
