Malware is a word that is short for “malicious software.” It is generally used as an umbrella term covering a wide range of different types of “malicious software,” from viruses to spyware to adware. Basically, any piece of software or an application or a program that was designed to be annoying, intrusive, harmful or similar is going to fall into the malware category. You will often find that many people use the phrase �

�computer virus” as a catch all term for ALL malware, whether it is a true computer virus or not. Regardless of the actual type of malware you are dealing with, if it was created with some harmful intent in mind, it is considered malware, but this is not the same as defective software that causes problems just because it was built or coded incorrectly. Instead, defective software is said to have “bugs.”

 

 

Some of the most common types of malware are Trojan horses, viruses, worms, spyware, adware, and browser hijackers. Each of these different types of malware are designed to do different things. For example, spyware is generally designed to watch your computer activity and report that data somewhere else. That's why they call it spyware – it is actually spying on you! A browser hijacker is designed to take you to a completely different website (which may try to mine information from you or your computer) than the one you actually intended to go to. If your system is infected with a browser hijacker, the program can take you where ever it wants you to go, regardless of what you are actually typing into that address bar.

Because there are so many different kinds of malware – and for each type of malware, you will find hundreds of individual infections you could end up with, all with different names and perhaps slightly different intents or functions – you need to be careful about protecting your computer system from infections. You need to have a good anti virus software program installed along with a good anti spyware software program. Each will look for different types of infections, so it is wise to have both to cover more ground. And since new malware is developed and released every day, you need to keep both of those programs updated regularly so they are aware of any new infections out there and can detect them for you if they show up on your hard drive!

Malware can't always be completely avoided, but if you are careful, you can prevent a PC disaster caused by a particularly nasty virus!