I’m going to describe the various different kinds of malware. Each of these malware types has different characteristics and features. Virus: A virus is one of the most common types of malware. It re-produces very rapidly and typically unleashes some kind of payload. Trojan Horse: A Trojan horse is a malicious program that masks itself as a legit program. When you open the Trojan Horse, you may unleash a barrage of malware on your computer. Trojan Downloader: A Trojan Downloader is a malicious program that attempts to download other Trojan Horses or other malware in an attempt to take over the system. Spyware: Spyware is malware that spies on your browsing habits and may try to steal certain information from you. Adware: Adware is malicious software that presents advertisements or some other types of ads on your computer. Rootkit: A rootkit is a tool that allows a hacker or that enables malware to hide itself from traditional scan methods. These are traditionally hard to detect and hard to remove. Worm: A worm is a type of malware that spreads very rapidly through networks or computers. Most commonly found in e-mail attachments. Keylogger: A keylogger collects the data you type and sends that data to a remote server, possibly to an attacker. This data may include browsing history, credit card numbers, social security card numbers, phone numbers, or anything else. Dialer: These programs dial a high cost number and cause major charges to your phone bill. These are not as common now that high speed broadband is out. Backdoor: Exactly as the name implies, this is backdoor to your computer through an exploit. These programs allow an attacker to gain access to your machine. Bot or Botnet: A bot is a program that can maliciously attack something for a set number of time and runs automatically. These are extremely hard to get rid of because they may come back since they are automatically controlled. Now that you know about the various types of malware, you can protect yourself from getting malware in the first place.