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M

Macro Virus

A virus which uses VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) or some other macro scripting languages. Usually exploits MS Office documents.

Mailer

A program which creates and sends emails. Viruses are often mailers that distribute copies of themselves to addresses harvested from an infected machine.

malware

Malware-Short for "malicious software," malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "badware," which is a good way to remember it (even if you're not Spanish).

Common examples of malware include viruses, worms, trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.