Malware is malicious software created by people known as hackers. Malware comes in many forms and you may have heard it referred to as worms, Trojans, Spyware, or Adware. These computer viruses are not interchangeable and they all perform different tasks. It is important to understand what each one is and what its purpose is in order to protect yourself from them.
Worms and Trojans are essentially the same kind of virus. They are viruses designed to find their way into your computer through your Internet connection and then do some sort of damage. In many cases they will cause some sort of damage to your hard drive. For example, a virus like this may completely reformat your hard drive when it is triggered. Viruses can also be used to hijack your computer for the virus creators needs. These types of computer viruses are the most malicious and cause the most headaches to computer users. They can make a computer not usable and dangerous to other computers on your network.
Spyware is a kind of Malware that has a few purposes. One of the main purposes of spyware is to collect personal information. This information can be used for things like determining your buying habits and sending you Spam email based on those habits or even stealing your identity.
Adware is probably the most annoying kind of Malware and the easiest kind of Malware to detect. It is easy because one of the primary functions of Adware is to load pop up advertising on to your computer. Adware can clog up your computer with so many pop up ads that it can force you to have to re-format your hard drive. Somehow this is supposed to make you want to buy product. No one ever said Malware creators were smart.
