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Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system, without the owner's informed consent. There are disagreements about the etymology of the term itself, the primary uncertainty being whether it is a portmanteau word (of "malicious" and "software") or simply composed of the prefix "mal-" and the morpheme "ware". Malware references the intent of the creator, rather than any particular features. It includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, and other malicious and unwanted software. In law, malware is sometimes known as a computer contaminant, for instance in the legal codes of California, West Virginia, and several other U. How do I know if a virus has infected my computer? How do I know if a virus has
infected my computer? Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. S. states [1].

Malware should not be confused with defective software, that is, software which has a legitimate purpose but contains harmful bugs.

Purposes

Over the years, people have written malicious software for a number of different purposes.

Many early infectious programs, including the Internet Worm and a number of MS-DOS viruses, were written as experiments or pranks generally intended to be harmless or merely annoying rather than to cause serious damage. Malicious Software Removal Tool. Young programmers learning about viruses and the techniques used to write them might write one to prove that they can do it, or to see how far it could spread. As late as 1999, widespread viruses such as the Melissa virus appear to have been written chiefly as pranks.

A slightly more hostile intent can be found in programs designed to vandalize or cause data loss. Many DOS viruses were designed to destroy files on a hard disk, or to corrupt the filesystem by writing junk data. Network-borne worms such as the 2001 Code Red worm or the Ramen worm fall into the same category. McAfeecom.