There are plenty of definitions for Malware (malicious software) – below is just some of the types of Malware and Viruses that you may encounter. If you think you may have any of the following, then book your machine in to get cleaned today!
Malware is malicious software that can appear in many guises (e.g. code, scripts, plugins etc.) and is a collective term used to define any software which is intrusive and/or unauthorised.
Spyware is a term that is used to describe malicious software that tracks a users movement, this can be relatively harmless (e.g. tracking a visitor across a webpage) to much more severe, (e.g. harvesting user credentials, stealing bank account information, emails).
Adware is software that places ads on the victim’s PC. Sometimes adware will just replace legitimate advertisements on a webpage (ads which have been placed there by the webmaster) with different ads in place of them. Othertimes, adware can be more irritating and place ads in locations where there wasnt any ads before (such as the Google homepage).
A virus is a piece of Malware which is capable of replicating itself into other applications, operating system files and a hard disk boot sector. The virus can then manipulate the outcome of the user’s experience. Viruses can be as harmless as hiding a button or displaying a message, to as severe as stealing personal information or wiping computer system’s data.
A worm is a piece of malicious software that is created in order to replicate itself onto more machines. For example, if a worm infects one PC, it may be able to spread across the network to infect other machines on the whole network. Worms can spread over the network or via removable storage such as USB, CD or floppy disk drives.
