Malware definition
September 4th, 2007
There are many different ways to classify malware. Most, such as Antivirus vendors, tend to classify by intent (Trojan, worm, mailer, etc…) and several aspects of severity (damage potential, potential of outbreak, and actual outbreak reports). These metrics are usually averaged to create an overall risk rating. To the end user, malware is usually just software they didn’t want or ask for, doing nasty things to them or their computers. However, a great deal of modern malware doesn’t want to announce its presence to the average end user.