In 1971 BBN Technologies engineer Robert Thomas created the Creeper virus as an experiment, made to interact with DEC PDP-10 mainframe computers running the TENEX operating system and to spread on the ARPANET. Malware existed long before that, however. The term malware itself was used for the first time by Yisrael Radai, a security researcher and computer scientist back in 1990. Ransomware Damages Costs Chart – Source: CyberSecurity Ventures Origins of Malware The rise of malware attacks and operations worldwide has also increased the damage by such actions, as can be seen in the figure below: Malware is also sometimes used against government or corporate websites to disrupt their operations or to make a statement, as was the case with numerous hacks attributed to hackers from the hacktivist group Anonymous. Today malware is used by both black hat hackers and governments to steal personal, business, financial information or to sabotage computer systems and industry. These may affect not only computers, but servers, clients, routers, networks, and even individual devices.

Malware may encrypt sensitive data, steal information, hijack functions, and monitor the activities of users without their permission. Malware may cover a range of threats such as spyware, worms, Trojans, rootkits, adware, scareware, rootkits, used for dishonest practices, and more.

Although the commonly used term “computer virus” is used in many cases, malware is a catch-all term for a varying range of software. Malware comes in many shapes and forms, but it is mostly aimed at either collecting information or hurting the system they inhabit. Malicious software, or malware, is software specifically designed to operate on a system without the knowledge of the user or their consent.

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