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Dialers, Trojans, Viruses, and Worms
Malware - is programming or files that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. It includes, computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses.
Adware: a program that generates popups on your computer or displays advertisements. Not all adware programs are necessarily considered malware. There are many legitimate programs that are given for free that display ads in their programs in order to generate revenue. If the information is provided up front they are not considered malware.
Dialler: a program that typically dials a premium rate number that has per minute charges over and above the typical call charge. These calls are with the intent of gaining access to pornographic material.
Hijackers: a program that attempts to hijack certain Internet functions like redirecting your start page to the hijacker's own start page, redirecting search queries to a undesired search engine, or replace search results from popular search engines with their own information.
Spyware: a program that monitors your activity or information on your computer and sends that information to a remote computer without your knowledge.
Trojan: a program that has been designed to appear innocent but has been intentionally designed to cause some malicious activity or to provide a backdoor to your system.
Virus: a program that when run, infects other programs and files on your computer. These programs can have many effects ranging from wiping your hard drive or displaying a joke in a small box. This type of infection also tends to be localized to your computer and does not have the ability to spread to another computer.Viruses and worms are used interchangeably.
Worm: a program that when run, attempts to spread to other computers using either mass-mailing techiques to email addressess found on your computer or by using the Internet to infect a remote computer using known security holes. Worms and viruses are sometimes used interchangeably.
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