The term malware is a contraction for malicious software. A simple definition is any piece of software that was written with the intent to damage computer assets, steal data, or frankly conduct any form of malicious activity within an environment. Malware is considered a general term for a variety of different types of malicious software, as modern day malware may include many characteristics that place it into multiple classes. The lines between individual types of malicious software continue to blur and erroneous classification happens all the time within the industry. We can divide malware into some specific classifications to make it easier to analyze and subsequently contain the spread once the malware strain has been identified, and containment processes are in place based on the malware characteristics. Virus This is the most commonly used term to define malicious software outside of the term malware. A virus refers to a self-replicating form of malicious code that