We always hear that someone was infected with a virus/trojan etc. But was is the difference between all of them?

In this post I will go a little deeper of the differences between the types of infections possible on a device.

This post is part of a series called “Ethical Hacking”.

Malware, short for malicious software, is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other intentionally harmful programs. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software.

•  Spyware
  • Is software that aims to gather information about a person or organization without their knowledge, that may send such information to another entity without the consumer’s consent, or that asserts control over a device without the consumer’s knowledge.
• Virus
  • A computer virus is a type of malicious software program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be “infected” with a computer virus.
• Worms
  • A computer worm is a standalone computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. Often, it uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
• Trojan Horse
  • Trojans are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example where a user is duped into executing an e-mail attachment disguised to be unsuspicious, or by drive-by download.
• Ransomware
  • Is a type of malicious software from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim’s data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.
• Adware
  • Advertising-supported software, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process.
• Scareware
  • Is a form of malware which uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat in order to manipulate users into buying unwanted software.