Many computers users can hardly differentiate between Trojan horses, viruses, worm, spyware, malware and adware. In most cases users refer to the entire group as viruses.
These can be prevented or cleaned using antivirus and anti spyware software, though most antivirus software have an anti-spyware utility, it is handy to have a purely anti-spyware software .
Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the user’s informed consent.
Trojan horse is a piece of malware which disguises it self as performing a certain task yet it is performing another e.g transmitting a virus eg during installation of backdoor programs.
A worm is a self-replicating program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computer terminals on the network) and it does so automatically.
Spyware is program that is installed secretly on a computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer.
Adware or advertising-supported software is any program which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.
A Virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user but it usually requires user intervention to spread.
