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malware

Malware is a type of software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer system without the computer owner's knowledge or consent.

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The term is a shortened combination of the words "malicious" and "software" and is a generic term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, such as computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware.

Related Terms


A computer virus is a hidden, self-replicating software program, usually containing malicious logic...

A computer worm is a self-replicating, self-propagating, self-contained program that uses network...

Spyware is a generic term typically describing software that records, without the knowledge of the...

Trojan horse describes a type of malicious software (malware) named after the wooden horse the...