Malware, Adware, Spyware, Viruses, BHO

1. Malware, Adware, Spyware, Viruses, BHO

2. Malware • A generic term increasingly being used to describe any form of malicious software like viruses, trojan horses, malicious active content, etc. www.itsecurity.com/ • MALicious softWARE, including viruses, worms, Trojans, Denial of Service and other such attacks. Sometimes referred to as rogue programs. www.gslis.utexas.edu/~netsec/gloss.html • Malicious software, like worms, viruses, and trojan horses. instaar.colorado.edu/~peckhams/gloss.html

3. Virus • a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; "a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance"

4. Worm • a software program capable of reproducing itself that can spread from one computer to the next over a network; "worms take advantage of automatic file sending and receiving features found on many computers"

5. Trojan • a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful; "the contents of a trojan can be a virus or a worm"; "when he downloaded the free game it turned out to be a trojan horse" www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

6. Spam • Unsolicited "junk" e-mail sent to large numbers of people to promote products or services. Sexually explicit unsolicited e-mail is called "porn spam." Also refers to inappropriate promotional or commercial postings to discussion groups or bulletin boards. www.getnetwise.org/glossary.php

7. Adware • software installed on your computer by a remote site containing hidden software that sends details of the Websites you visit and other information from your computer (which can include your email address) to advertisers so they can target you with popup ads and spam. See Spam, Spyware. www.hull.ac.uk/ict4lt/en/en_glossary.htm

8. Adware • A program that displays banners while being run, or reports users habits or information to 3rd parties. www.newertwist.com/webpages/definitions.html

9. Spyware • A general term for a program that surreptitiously monitors your actions. While they are sometimes sinister, like a remote control program used by a hacker, software companies have been known to use spyware to gather data about customers. The practice is generally frowned upon. blackice.iss.net/glossary.php

10. Popups • A new browser window that appears unrequested on your screen. A gratuitous, easily-programmed visual effect exploited by many Web sites commonly used for advertisements. Particularly annoying are those termed exit popups: browser windows that spring to life when you leave a site or when you close a browser window. www.popupcop.com/glossary.html

11. Browser Helper Objects • Software allowing developers to customize and control Internet Explorer. When IE 4.x and higher starts, it reads the registry to locate installed BHO's and then creates them. Created BHO's then have access to all the events and properties of that browsing session. The APIs for building BHO's are very cool -- they give developers almost complete control over Internet Explorer.

12. Browser Helper Objects

13. Anti-Malware • Virus Checker (www.mcafee.com) • HijackThis (www.hijackthis.com) • NoAdware (www.noadware.com) • Popup blocker (Yahoo popup blocker) • Anti-Spam (Norton Antispam)