Malware

Malware (short for Malicious Software) is software designed to disrupt the operation of a computer, to collect sensitive and personal information, or to gain unauthorized access to a computer. Sometimes malware can be in the form of software, other times in the form of a script or code.

The following malicious programs fall into the malware category:

• viruses
• worms
• Trojan horses
• spyware
• adware
• most rootkits
• other dangerous programs

Malware can sometimes masquerade as a legitimate program and may even be part of a company's official program. This can sometimes cause an antivirus to flag a regular program as malware without it actually being malware. Such a program may just have a similar behaviour – it may be useful and legitimate software, but it may also be able to collect and send information about the user, usually for marketing and advertising purposes.

Malware is nowadays most commonly spread via the internet and emails.