Why Malware is an Important Issue

        Malware is an important issue for many reasons. Computer viruses are small software programs that spread from computer to computer and interfere with computer operation. A computer virus may corrupt or delete data, use email to spread to other computers, or delete everything on the hard drive. A trojan horse is a type of malware that appears to be a desirable program like a game, but when you install the game the trojan will also be installed and gain access to all the data on the computer and cause harm.

        Worms are self-replicating malware which send copies to other computers through computer networks. Spyware is a type of malware that can be secretly installed on a computer and collect personal information like passwords, credit card numbers, and where you surf. Malware is a very important issue and can cause devastating financial damage like the ILOVEYOU virus which caused around $5.5 billion dollars in damage.