Google recently released their list of the Top 10 Malware Sites over at their blog and I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at malware and what the word means and how to avoid or get rid of it.

So what exactly is malware?

Malware is a word comprised of the two words ‘malicious’ and ‘software’. The term is used to refer to any software that is written for strictly malicious purposes. Forms of malware include trojans, viruses, spyware, adware, worms, bots keyloggers and any other software that was created for the purpose of infecting unsuspecting user’s computers.

Normally computers are infected with malware through downloads of other softwares that have been infected with malware (either intentionally or not), through infected e-mails, or through simply visiting internet sites that are infected. The damage done by malware totals in the billions of dollars annually and is a serious threat to both the stability of your computer and the privacy of all the data it contains.

Though there is never a surefire way to prevent becoming infected with malware a good anti-virus program and a malware scanner of some type, will help to detect, prevent and/or remove malware. Make sure you have an up to date anti-virus software protecting your computer and run malware detection and removal software often to find anything that may get by your computer’s defenses.

There are many free malware detection and removal tools available but be sure you do a little research before downloading any of them as one often employed trick is to disguise malware as a malware removal tool. An internet search for malware removal tools will return good information on which applications are the best and which should and should not be trusted.

So check out Googles list and remember to be careful on the internet, Employ measures to prevent becoming a victim of malicious software, or malware, and stay away from any sites that are suspicious.

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