Malware, short for malicious software, is a software designed to secretly access a computer system without the owner's informed consent.

Software is considered to be malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, scareware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software or program.

The prevalence of malware as a vehicle for organized Internet crime, along with the general inability of traditional anti-malware protection platforms to protect against the continuous stream of unique and newly produced malware, has seen the adoption of a new mind-set for businesses operating on the Internet: the acknowledgment that some sizable percentage of Internet customers will always be infected for some reason or another, and that they need to continue doing business with infected customers. The result is a greater emphasis on back-office systems designed to spot fraudulent activities associated with advanced malware operating on customers' computers.

While surfing on the internet, if a user visits a malware infected website or downloads infected software by mistake, the malicious software program gets installed to the user’s computer and does unwanted operations for its creator.

User’s very important information like credit card details, important username and passwords, personal information and other private information can be stolen  by the installed Malware and it can send the information it to its creator  using different mediums of communication.

Adware programs keep showing different non-relevant advertisements to the infected User forcefully!

A worm is self replicating and it needs no intervention from a human user. It will create copies of itself and spread itself all over user’s  network. One of the main ways that it is able to travel is through the use of networks, both the internet and local. A worm is one of the many threats that you can get from online when you leave your network unprotected.

Spyware programs designed to monitor users' web browsing, display unsolicited advertisements, or redirect affiliate marketing revenues to the spyware creator. Spyware programs do not spread like viruses; they are, in general, installed by exploiting security holes or are packaged with user-installed software, like web browsers.

Or we should be asking Why would one not worry about Malware.  Lack of protection against malware in your websites can risk compromising the safety of your consumers,  can result in disruption in business continuity, brand loss and reputation , unwanted publicity and lastly non compliance (e.g. PCI DSS ) penalties , if steps are not taken to proactively monitor for this.

To protect yourself from being infected by website malware, you need to focus on the security of your website first.

1. The first step is to identify the infected code on the website.

2. After identifying the code, search all the files for the infected code and remove all of them from the infected files of your website. Make sure you have a secure website now.

3. Subscribe to malware scanning service to make sure you have completely healed the infection.

4. Also subscribe to security scanning service to make sure your website is monitored for infection or possibility of infection, because malware infection can happen to vulnerable websites only.