Security threats Toolkit

Story: There's no worm in your Apple - honest

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If opener was PC malware, it would be classified as spyware not a virus. Spyware is an application or process that is installed (knowingly or unsuspectingly) for the purpose of collecting information or activities. This collected information may then be passed on to a 3rd party who uses it to compromise the system even more. Viruses, on the other hand, attach themselves to files and try to spread to other files or the OS. In the old days, they spread to other machines by floppies, zip disks or file sharing. With the net, they infect an OS and try to transmit themselves via transmission sockets. If it emails itself out, it's most likely a trojan horse because it tries to get the receiver to read the email and click on it. If it port-scans neighboring machines and tries to burrow through known security holes, it's a worm. Some viruses are hybrids. Based on these traditional viewpoints, opener is neither a trojan horse, worm, or a hybrid. It's spyware!

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