Adware Adware (or spyware) is
a small program that is designed to show advertisements (in various form and
degrees of intrusiveness) on your computer. It often reports personal
information back to its owners. As a result your sense of privacy can be
violated.
Backdoor A backdoor is a
small malicious program that is used to gain access to a computer by bypassing
the computer access security mechanisms. It gives the attacker almost
unlimited rights. While it can be used to spy on a user, it is mainly used to
install other malware on the system.
Heuristic A technique
designed to detect malware by empirical means but without having the specific
data.
Malware A generic name for
all types of malicious programs: adware, backdoors, rogues, trojans, viruses
and worms.
Rogue A rogue program is a
malicious program that is disguised, for instance, as trustworthy anti-spyware
programs or registry cleaners. But these programs are only put on the market
to scare you into buying these programs because they make exaggerated claims
about the safety of your computer or, worse still, give erroneous scan results
or put their own malware in your system.
Trojan A trojan (or Trojan
horse) is a small malicious program that pretends to have a particular
function, but that only shows its real purpose after execution and that
purpose is often destructive. Trojans cannot multiply themselves, which
differentiates them from viruses and worms.
Virus A virus is a small
malicious program that multiplies and is capable to attach itself to other
programs after being executed. It then causes an infection and causes various
degrees of damage to your computer.
Worm A worm is often characterized as a
malicious application that will use a host machine to infect other machines.
Therefore worms can create enormous damage on networks with multiple
computers.
