Some definitions of terms:

Adware:

Any piece of software supported at least in part by advertising. Some pieces of adware are not bad, such as Opera web browser. Others, such as KaZaa and Golden Casino are detrimental to the health of your PC.

Malware:

Any program, be it spyware, worm, virus, or trojan, that allows access to your computer without your permission, or a program that uses your machine to launch other related attacks.

Spyware:

Any piece of software that tracks your movements, actions, or keystrokes for any purpose.

Trojan:

Any program that deposits some unknown payload(s) on your computer when you think it is doing something else. In the early days of computing, games available for download were sometimes trojans, doing damage to your system while you were playing the game.

Virus:

A piece of malware that causes damage to your files, or interrupts your normal usage of your machine.

Worm:

A program deisnged to propogate itself across computer networks by 'tunneling' through the underlying protocols.

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Written Feb 2004 by warren Myers