| A | B |
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| Malware | Short for malicious software, it is code or software that is specifically designed to damage, disrupt, steal, or in general inflict some other “bad” or illegitimate action on data, hosts, or networks. |
| Virus | A type of malware that copies itself by infecting other files, just as viruses in the real world infect biological cells and use those biological cells to reproduce copies of themselves. NOTE: It requires human interaction or someone to activate it. |
| Worm | This program is similar to a virus, but it spreads a different way. Rather than infecting files and relying on human activity to move those files around and run them on different systems, it spreads over computer networks on its own accord. |
| Trojan Horse | This program is a type of malware that disguises itself as a legitimate file. When you download and run the program, the program will run in the background, allowing third-parties to access your computer. It can do this for any number of reasons — to monitor activity on your computer, or to join your computer to a botnet. This program may also be used to open the floodgates and download many other types of malware onto your computer. |
| Spyware | This program is a type of malicious software that spies on you without your knowledge. It collects a variety of different types of data, depending on the piece of software. |
| Adware | This often comes along with spyware. It’s any type of software that displays advertising on your computer. Programs that display advertisements inside the program itself aren’t generally classified as malware. The kind of program that’s particularly malicious is the kind that abuses its access to your system to display ads when it shouldn’t. For example, a piece of harmful program may cause pop-up advertisements to appear on your computer when you’re not doing anything else. Or, it may inject additional advertising into other web pages as you browse the web. |
| Keylogger | A type of malware that runs in the background, recording every key stroke you make. These keystrokes can include usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive data. The program then, most likely, uploads these keystrokes to a malicious server, where it can be analyzed and people can pick out the useful passwords and credit card numbers. |
| BotNet | A large network of computers that are under the botnet creator’s control. Each computer functions as a “bot” because it’s infected with a specific piece of malware. |
| Rootkit | A type of malware designed to burrow deep into your computer, avoiding detection by security programs and users. For example, a rootkit might load before most of Windows, burying itself deep into the system and modifying system functions so that security programs can’t detect it. A rootkit might hide itself completely, preventing itself from showing up in the Windows task manager. |
| Ransomware | A fairly new type of malware, it holds your computer or files hostage and demands a payment. Some programs may simply pop up a box asking for money before you can continue using your computer. Such prompts are easily defeated with antivirus software. |
| Mydoom | A computer worm affecting Microsoft Windows. It was first sighted on January 26, 2004. It became the fastest-spreading e-mail worm ever (as of January 2004), exceeding previous records set by the Sobig worm and ILOVEYOU. The worm contains the text message "andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry," leading many to believe that the worm's creator was paid. |
| I Love You | A computer worm that successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers in 2000 when it was sent as an attachment to an email message with the text “ILOVEYOU” in the subject line. |
| White Hat | breaks security for non-malicious reasons, perhaps to test their own security system or while working for a security company which makes security software. |
| Black Hat | This hacker is a hacker who "violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain." |
| Gray Hat | This hacker is a combination of a black hat and a white hat hacker. This hacker may surf the Internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect, for example. They may then offer to correct the defect for a fee. |
| Hacktivist | This hacker utilizes technology to publicize a social, ideological, religious or political message. |
| Phishing | An email messages that seem to come from trustworthy sources, such as banking entities, but attempt to harvest confidential user data. |
| Crimeware | Programs and social engineering designed to fraudulently obtain financial gain from either the affected user or third parties. |
| Zombie | A compromised computer controlled by someone else. |
| Cookies | small text files stored on a computer by the Internet browser when visiting web pages. The information stored by cookies has a number of objectives: it can be used to personalize web pages, to collect demographic information about visitors to a page or to monitor statistics of banners displayed, etc. |
| CryptoLocker | a ransomware trojan which targeted computers running Microsoft Windows. It propagated via infected email attachments, and via an existing botnet; when activated, the malware encrypts certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers. |
| Antivirus Software | This computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software |
| False Positive | This is when your virus scanner detects a file as a virus, even when it really isn't a virus, and then tries to quarantine or delete that file. |
| Grayware | This is a term applied to unwanted applications or files that are not classified as malware, but can worsen the performance of computers and may cause security risks. |
| Macro | These are used to make a sequence of computing instructions available to the programmer as a single program statement, making the programming task less tedious and less error-prone. |
| Warez | Copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. They are generally unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar interest using a darknet. |
| PUP | Potentially Unwanted Program |
| Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool | A freely-distributed virus removal tool developed by Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows operating system. it is an on-demand anti-virus tool ("on-demand" meaning It lacks real-time protection) that scans the computer for specific widespread malware and tries to eliminate the infection. The program is usually updated on the second Tuesday of every month and distributed via Windows Update. |
| Microsoft Security Essentials | An antivirus software (AV) product that provides protection against different types of malware such as computer viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojan horses. It runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not on Windows 8, which has a built-in AV component. |
| Windows Defender | Formerly known as Microsoft AntiSpyware, is a software product that helps combat malware. t included a number of real-time security agents that monitored several common areas of Windows for changes which may be caused by spyware. |
| Virus Definition files | This file is used by anti-malware programs to check for malware. |
| Browser hijacking | This a type of online fraud. Scammers use malicious software (malware) to take control of your computer's Internet browser and change how and what it displays when you're surfing the web. |
| IC3 | The Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, is a multi-agency task force made up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). |
| wardrive | The act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer, smartphone or personal digital assistant |
