Whats the difference between a virus, spyware, adware, malware?
As far as i concerned a virus is a small program that invades your computer and has bad intentions, spyware spy’s for information, adware is software with advertising, and malware is malicious software.
I have written a more detailed article about it here http://tips4pc.com/Computer_security/whats_the_difference_between_a_v.htm but I would like to know everyone else’s take on this?
You need to re-write on some certain points. You’re correct to say that malware is malicious software but you can add more by saying malware is a generic term that covers all such as adware/spyware, rogue, virus, trojan, worm, rootkit, backdoor and more.
Actually, there is a fine line between adware and spyware, because in many cases adware can report back info as well as advertise without the users’ consent and knowledge. You can also add, that banner ads are capable of more than just advertising, malicious users can use them to hide malware and in some cases, doesn’t even need users to click on them, it can close and open the website and then direct them to a website where a scan appears and then try to scare users into thinking their computers are infected and pushes rogue software on them.
You’re correct that a virus is a small program which can replicate and once executed can attach to other programs and can cause different levels of harm.
Anyway, there is a lot to write up about as I only cover a fraction of it.
2 Comments »
Wooly Booly said :
October 16, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Well, i am not writing a book,, but, yeah , you pretty much nailed,,, All should use protection,, I do,, i have av program,, antimalware, and an antispyware program..
References :
Muckdoomee said :
October 16, 2009 at 8:15 pm
You need to re-write on some certain points. You’re correct to say that malware is malicious software but you can add more by saying malware is a generic term that covers all such as adware/spyware, rogue, virus, trojan, worm, rootkit, backdoor and more.
Actually, there is a fine line between adware and spyware, because in many cases adware can report back info as well as advertise without the users’ consent and knowledge. You can also add, that banner ads are capable of more than just advertising, malicious users can use them to hide malware and in some cases, doesn’t even need users to click on them, it can close and open the website and then direct them to a website where a scan appears and then try to scare users into thinking their computers are infected and pushes rogue software on them.
You’re correct that a virus is a small program which can replicate and once executed can attach to other programs and can cause different levels of harm.
Anyway, there is a lot to write up about as I only cover a fraction of it.
References :
Leave a Comment