Computers have become a part of many people’s everyday life and most families own at least one computer at home. Although computers have brought many conveniences to a person’s daily life, there are people out there that have bad intentions such as stealing other people’s private data. Through these intentions, these people have made many softwares to achieve their goals. These softwares are called “Malware” and they have the ability to corrupt a computer’s system and cause the system to crash.
Introdution
Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses. Software is considered to be malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software..
Purposes
Many early infectious programs, including the first Internet Worm and a number of MS-DOS viruses, were written as experiments or pranks. They were generally intended to be harmless or merely annoying, rather than to cause serious damage to computer systems. In some cases, the perpetrator did not realize how much harm their creations would do. Young programmers learning about viruses and their techniques wrote them for the sole purpose that they could or to see how far it could spread. As late as 1999, widespread viruses such as the Melissa virus appear to have been written chiefly as pranks. Hostile intent related to vandalism can be found in programs designed to cause harm or data loss. Many DOS viruses, and the Windows Explore Zip worm,