What's the Difference Between All These Bad “Wares”?

We've all heard about spyware, malware, adware and viruses. We know they are damaging to our computers and can cause all sorts of damage. What we don't all know is what the differences between them are. Many of us could use a basic definition of what these menaces are and what to do about them if we get one.

Spyware

Spyware is the software that collects and transmits your personal information, including financial information, browsing habits or sites visited from your computer to another location on the Internet without your permission or knowledge. Spyware is usually an add-on to something you download from the Internet, such as a browser helper or a web accelerator. They tend to display numerous, continuing pop-up or banner ads or they might redirect your browser to another website.

Spyware can also grab your advertising revenue and send it to a third party, change the settings of your computer or your homepage or even cause a loss of Internet or other programs. Spyware typically does not transfer to other computers; it prefers to hide itself deep inside your system and can be very difficult to remove. Spyware rarely installs all by itself. It usually will let other malicious software access your system as well. Spyware is typically very resistant to removal and can require expert help to get rid of it.

Adware

Adware is similar to spyware, but it generally refers to advertising that is displayed according to your browsing habits. You may or may not have any idea that adware has been downloaded onto your computer. The main purpose of adware is to keep an eye on the user's browsing habits in order to send targeted ads to your computer in an attempt to steal the revenue from these ads and send it to the sites that compromised your system.

Malware

Malware is an umbrella term that simply means "malicious software" and can refer to spyware, adware and viruses.

Virus

A computer virus is on a mission to infect and destroy your computer as well as replicating itself so it can spread to as many other computers as possible as quickly as possible, before it is detected. Viruses work by executing code and writing to memory, so they will often attach themselves to executable files that are part of legitimate programs. When the user opens the program, the code from the virus may execute before the program does. They can attach to other programs, transfer through emails and as macros in documents or even spread through an entire network. They can overwrite files and kill the work of an antivirus program before it can ever even detect the virus.

Viruses are tricky and extremely destructive. The people who create the virus often work hard to try to outdo the viruses that were previously created. There is a certain warped type of prestige among creators of viruses and malware to see who can create the most destructive programs.

To keep your computer and network free from all forms of malware, including spyware, adware and viruses, you need to have the most up-to-date security available. You need to run anti-virus programs continuously and anti-spyware programs daily.