Whois & Analysis for avg.com

Malware, short for malicious software, is any software used to disrupt computer or mobile operations, gather sensitive information, gain access to private computer systems, or display unwanted advertising.

Before the term malware was coined by Yisrael Radai in 1990, malicious software was referred to as computer viruses.

The first category of malware propagation concerns parasitic software fragments that attach themselves to some existing executable content.

The fragment may be machine code that infects some existing application, utility, or system program, or even the code used to boot a computer system.

Malware is defined by its malicious intent, acting against the requirements of the computer user, and does not include software that causes unintentional harm due to some deficiency.

Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Android's user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard for text input.

In addition to touchscreen devices, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Android Wear for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface.

Variants of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.

A virtual private network (VPN) is a virtualized extension of a private network across a public network, such as the Internet.

It enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

Applications running across the VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network.

Antivirus or anti-virus software (often abbreviated as AV), sometimes known as anti-malware software, is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software.

In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it.

Encryption does not of itself prevent interference, but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor.

In an encryption scheme, the intended information or message, referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, generating ciphertext that can only be read if decrypted.

For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption key generated by an algorithm.

It is in principle possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key, but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, considerable computational resources and skills are required.

An authorized recipient can easily decrypt the message with the key provided by the originator to recipients but not to unauthorized users.