Difference Between Malware & Viruses
The fundamental difference is that all viruses are malwares, while not all malwares are viruses. Malware is short for malicious software, which is the general term for harmful threats that include viruses, Trojans, worms and spyware.
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Virus Vs. Trojan
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A virus, in the strictest sense, is a file that can replicate and infect computers without consent. A Trojan borrows from the idea of the Trojan horse in mythology, wherein a seemingly harmless file contains truckload of malicious code. Oftentimes, a Trojan is used as a disguise and entry point for viruses to infect a computer.
Virus Vs. Worm
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Worms evolved from viruses. Both are self-replicating programs, but worms are more powerful because they are encoded to check network connectivity and spread themselves across networks rapidly. Worms can bring down networks by continuously flooding the system with copies of themselves.
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Virus Vs. Spyware
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Spyware is short for spy software, which, as the name implies, tracks and collects user information and activities without consent. A spyware logs itself into a computer, collects whatever information it can find and uploads it to a remote server. Spywares are extremely dangerous because they are capable of gathering sensitive information such as credit cards, email addresses and phone numbers.
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