Enterprise Mac Security: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

8.1. Classifying Threats

When discussing how to combat malware threats, it's important to distinguish between the different kinds of threats that can exist on a Mac. To most users, a virus is something that threatens productivity on a machine, and the term is frequently used to classify all malware. But it is important to make the distinction between the two. Malware is the overarching term used by security professionals to reference certain kinds of hindrances to the operating system, while a virus is just one form of malware. What distinguishes a virus from other forms of malware is its ability to replicate itself and spread to other files on a computer, thereby infecting them. However, a virus will infect files only on a single computer; ...