Basic Computer Security/Malware
Malware
[edit | edit source]Although at first the viruses were the greatest threat to internet connectivity, computer hackers are creative people and a great number of different types of programs were designed to break into or play with other computers. When security professional realized that virus hardening programs were becoming more or less effective, they soon realized that they needed a larger term to call the myriad different other types of destructive, and attack software out there.
The winner was the term malware, taken from the French word malaise or sickness. Malware was any program that eventually made your computer sick.