According to Wikipedia "Malware" is:  "software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent."

Some definitions of the names you might have heard for various kinds of malware.

1. Computer viruses - a computer program that can copy itself onto a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user.  Viruses could be introduced to your computer from a disk, flash drive, CD, email or from the internet.

2. Computer worms - Similar to a computer virus but a worm can "Self replicate" itself to other computers throughout a computer network without any user involvement.

3. Trojan horse - Just like the mythological Trojan Horse, these programs appear to be useful free downloads but when you download them to your computer you also download other unwanted and malicious programs onto your computer.  Trojans could thus be used to install all kinds of malware onto your computer.

4. Spyware - Malware that is downloaded to your computer with the purpose of tracking or recording the user's activities without the user's consent.  Such malicious software could be used to log keystrokes to get passwords, or just track internet search histories to target pop-up advertisements.

5.Adware - Some free downloads from the internet will ask the user for consent to install spyware software on the users computer as part of the download agreement.  Such software is usually referred to as adware instead of spyware since the user has given consent to be tracked in exchange for some free software.

6. Web cookies - These are usually harmless bits of text that are downloaded automatically whenever you open a website. The cookie is used to track your visits to a specific website.  The creators of websites use cookies to gather data about who and how often their website is being accessed.

Detailed information about malware can be found on Wikipedia.

The question now is how to clean malware off your computer? There are several Anti virus applications you can choose from which will clean your computer and protect you from future attackes. These include; BitDefender, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, F-Secure, Symantec Norton, Panda Software, AntiVir, Alwil Software, Trend Micro PC-cillin and Grisoft AVG to mention a few.

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Summarised by the WOUGNET TechSupport team from 180 Technology Tips