Hidden Dialer: Secretly installed program that is designed to call premium-rate phone lines over a user’s modem


Hijacker: Programs that take control of various parts of your web browser, including your home page, search pages, and search bar. Hijackers typically redirect users to certain sites or prevent access to others according to their own agenda.


Keylogger: Type of Snoopware program that runs invisibly in the background, capturing every key depression to monitor a user’s activities.


Letter Bomb: An e-mail or word processing document that contains active code intended to cause damage to the recipient's computer such as erasing the hard disk.


Logic bomb: A computer virus that remains hidden until it is triggered when certain specific conditions are met.  Inherently malicious software (eg viruses and worms) often contain logic bombs. This technique can be used by a virus or worm to gain momentum and spread before being noticed. Many viruses attack their host systems on specific dates, such as Friday 13th or April 1st.


Macro Virus: A virus that is written in a macro language and placed within a document. Viruses have to be "run" in order to do things. When the document is opened and the macro is executed, commands in the macro language do the destruction or the prank.


Sneakyware: An unwelcome program, file or code that the user agrees to run or install without realizing the full implications of that choice.


Snoopware: Software that keeps track of a user's activity on the computer. Snoopware can run in an undetectable stealth mode that records keystrokes and snapshots of the screen.


Spyware: Software that is secretly installed on a computer to monitor the user’s activities without their knowledge or consent.  Typically employed for advertising purposes, spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to another source.


Trojan: Small malicious program delivered secretly or benignly to a victim’s computer, usually in the form of an .exe file attached to another file. The purposes of these programs can be wide-ranging, but they are designed to allow third parties unauthorized access to the computer systems they infect. Trojans may also be used in order to exploit a computer system to send unsolicited email.


Virus: A self-replicating program written to cause mischief or damage to a computer system.  Viruses can be transmitted as e-mail attachments, downloads, or be present on a diskette or CD.


Worm: Similar to a virus, a worm is a self-replicating program that usually performs malicious actions.  Unlike a virus, however, a worm is self contained and propagates across networks without needing to attach itself to other programs. In this sense it is sometimes seen as the Internet equivalent of a virus.

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