When researching for website security, you’d come across terms like malware and virus. Both terms are often used interchangeably but the reality is that they are slightly different from one another. In this article, you’ll know the difference between Malware and virus. Also, you will learn about the different types of viruses that exist and the actions you can take to secure your website against them.
If you suspect that your website is redirect virus, clean your website immediately. Install, WordPress virus scan for your site and clean it in under 60 seconds. Moreover, the plugin will help you harden your website against future hack attacks.
What Is the Difference Between Malware and Virus?
Malware is an umbrella term that refers to any malicious software that is made with the motive of causing damage to a website or stealing the resources of a website.
There are different types of malware. A virus is a specific type of malware. It is a contagious piece of code that can be injected into the files and folders of a website. A virus functions as a parasite. It can replicate itself and spread into other files and folders of your website, URL blacklist virus and many more!
The term ‘malware’ was coined to include all types of malicious software. But since the term ‘virus’ was already ingrained in the collective mindset, both terms have come to be often used interchangeably. Worm is malware designed to destroy a system. It looks for vulnerabilities, exploits them and then moves to a different host system. In a shared hosting environment, it can move through the server destroying one website after another.
When looking for website security tools, you may across antivirus and antimalware tools. It’s natural to wonder what are the differences between antivirus and antimalware.
What Is The Difference Between Anti-Virus & Anti-Malware?
Anti-virus and anti-malware are essentially the same tools. It may cross your mind that anti-virus tools are used to clean viruses only but that’s not true. Security software companies use the terms anti-virus and anti-malware interchangeably. Therefore, anti-virus and anti-malware tools are same. They can scan WordPress for malware and remove all types of malware from your WordPress site. WordPress Brain is designed to find hidden malware.
- When other scanners only look for known malware, WordPress Brain goes one step ahead and analyses the behaviour of code to figure out if it is malicious or not.
- Not just that WordPress Brain is designed to scan every file, folder as well as database to find malware on your website.
- When malware is found on your website it redirecting virus removal to cleans it under seconds to prevent any kind of escalation.
- Moreover, WordPress Brain is a complete security suite. Using the software you can set a firewall and take clean malware WordPress and other malware protection measures.
Conclusion
If you are running a website, there is a real chance that the site can become a target for malware attacks.
Many site owners make the mistake of thinking that their site is small to be a target. Truth is, hacker tends to target small websites because small sites are callous about their security. Big or small – all websites need to take measures to ensure that their site is not infected by malware and virus.
Once your website is infected, hackers can use your website to carry out malicious activities like attacking other websites, storing files, sending spam emails, etc. Just as you protect your computer from cybercriminals, you’d need to protect your website from hackers.