Most computer users have most likely encountered the terms “malware” and “virus”. In fact, many computer users may have had first-hand experience with one or both of these malicious computer programs. And while the two terms are often used interchangeably, there is a difference. So what is malware or virus – how are they similar and what makes them different? In this article we will find out.

What Is the Difference Between Malware and Virus?

Malware is an umbrella term that refers to any malicious software designed to cause damage to a website or to steal a website’s resources. Malware and viruses are generally considered the same thing, and people generally tend to swap their meanings. It is therefore important that everyone know the difference between malware and viruses, as these two terms are technically different from each other.

Malware is a type of malicious software that intends to infect the host computer. While the virus is a type of malware itself. It infects files and then spreads through a device whenever the file or program is executed. There are different types of malware. A virus is a specific type of malware. It’s a contagious piece of code that can be injected into files and folders on a website. A virus works like a parasite. It can replicate and spread to other files and folders on your website.

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Examples of Malware VS Virus

After knowing the information about viruses and malware in their definition, now let’s see how they affect your computer and what the differences are.

There are many types of viruses and let’s see three common examples:

• Viruses can enter executable files and spread over a network. It can infect your operating system and even format the drive.
• Macro viruses use programs that support macros and typically appear as a compressed attachment or as a Word or Excel document attached to spam email.
• A polymorphic virus can replicate and encrypt itself and modify its own code to escape detection by an antivirus program.
• All malware is malware, including viruses, and can serve a variety of purposes, but the common purposes are:
• Steal your credit card or other financial data
• Tricking you into offering personal data for identity theft
• Infect PC and demand ransom payment

Where Do Malware and Viruses Come From?

Malware and viruses are created by humans. There are as many reasons why people create malware as people. Some do it for fun. Some for name recognition in the computer programming world. For others, it could be a form of revenge. For some, maybe it was just an educational exercise gone awry – like Frankenstein’s monster. And for many, they create these programs with the ultimate goal of stealing information and / or money.

How to Use Anti-Malware To Protect Your Website From Malware & Virus?

There are tons of anti-malware software to choose from, but not all of them are effective. We talked about Trojans in the previous section. Trojans are good for disguising themselves, which is why malware scanners fail to detect them.

Our antivirus software, RAM Malware Removal, is designed to detect hidden malware. When other scanners only look for known malware, RAM Antivirus takes a head start and analyzes the behavior of the code to determine if it is malicious or not. Not only is RAM Ultimate Antivirus designed to scan every file, folder as well as database to find malware on your website.  When malware is detected on your website, RAM cleans it up within seconds to prevent any kind of escalation.

This article covers the answers to some of your frequently asked questions: