malware
- 1Software deliberately built to operate in a malicious, undesirable way.
Like a saboteur sneaked into a factory to wreck the machines from the inside.
Investigators traced the malware back to a server hosted overseas.
The company's new firewall blocked several pieces of malware last month.
Note
A word assembled from parts: mal-, "bad", joined to the -ware of software and hardware. It works as an umbrella term covering viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware and spyware alike. Because it is usually uncountable, individual programs are counted with a unit noun, as in a second piece of malware, called Industroyer. The plural malwares exists but is the less usual choice.
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Origin
Formed from the prefix "mal-" plus "-ware," on the model of "software."