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<div align=justify>Along with viruses, hacking and phishing one of the biggest threats to computer users on the net today is malware. It can hijack your browser, redirect your search attempts, get annoying pop-ups, track the web sites you visit, steal your personal information, etc.

What is malware and how exactly it can get into your computer? Malware is an abbreviated term for a "malicious software" program - any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. Many of the malware programs will reinstall themselves even after you think you have removed them, or get into the very depth of your computer, making it very difficult to clean them. In this article we'll try to define the general types of malware and some preventive steps.

There are several ways in which you can get infected by a malware virus. Malware often comes bundled with other programs. These malware programs can be installed from websites, pretending to be software needed to view the website or update the computer. Others may install themselves through security holes in a web browser, requiring you to do nothing but visit the wrong web page to get infected.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to get infected with malware viruses than to get rid of them.

How to prevent malware? Will antivirus help here? Most antivirus programs do not detect ALL malware viruses on your computer. Therefore, they cannot provide complete malware removal. The latest versions may have anti malware scanners built-in. So you need to keep your antivirus and anti malware software updated on the regular basis. However, some malware programs may be removed together with the viruses, so it is generally a good idea to run a virus scan as well. 

<center>'''Types of malware'''</center>

Generally the malware is divided into several broad categories: adware, spyware, hijackers, toolbars, and dialers. Most of malware programs will fit into more than one category.

<center>'''Adware'''</center>

Adware is the class of malware programs that place advertisements on your screen. These may be in numerous forms available for showing you an ad. The pop-ups generally will not be stopped by pop-up stoppers, and may show up when you are playing a game, writing a document, listening to music, or anything else. They are not browser dependable. When  you search for something on the net, the advertisements will often be related to the web page you are viewing.

<center>'''Spyware'''</center>

Programs classified as spyware send your personal information to somebody else. Some spyware programs check the addresses of sites you visit or terms you search on the net. Others may send back information you type into forms in a browser or the filenames from your download history. Still others search your hard drive and report back what programs you have installed, contents of your e-mails, login and password, credit card number or any other information about or on your computer.

<center>Hijackers</center>

Hijackers can control various parts of your web browser (e.g. your home page, search pages, and search bar). They may redirect you to certain sites in case you mistype an address or even redirect you to their own search engine when you make a search. 

'''Note: the most exclusive targer of hijackers is Internet Explorer'''.

<center>'''Toolbars'''</center>

Toolbars plug into a web browser and provide additional functionality such as search forms or pop-up blockers. The Google and Yahoo! toolbars are probably the most common legitimate examples, and malware toolbars are often made in the way to reproduce them as much as possible. This type of malware almost always includes characteristics of the other malware categories, which is usually what gets it classified as malware. Any toolbar that is installed from unofficial sources may fall into the category of malware.

<center>'''Dialers'''</center>

Dialers are the type of malware programs that set up your modem connection to connect to a 1-900 number. This results with a large phone bill with the user not even suspecting of anything wrong going on.  

Here are some advises to protect yourself from malware. Also they may help you with malware removal:

1. Make sure you have an Antivirus, Firewall and Anti malware scanner installed. 

2. Make sure your system is ALWAYS up to date.

3. Do not visit suspicious sites.

4. Be careful with the files you download.

5. Scan the mail attachments you get.

6. Avoid clicking links within pop-ups or spam mails.

7. Do not install any plug-ins, codecs, etc. when watching video on-line. This particular plug-in may install software. </div>
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