Malware is an umbrella term that encompasses many different types of undesirable software. It is also commonly referred to as harmful software. Malware can be divided up into a few different categories according to the tasks it was designed to perform. Malware encompasses a wide variety of malicious software,including but not limited to virus attacks, malware, adware, worms, spam, and Trojan horses. Malware is a type of software that is designed to interfere with the normal functioning of a computer, steal private information, or gain unauthorised access to a device

There are several different types of malware detection, including malware surveying, pattern matching, natural language (NLP), including malware detection.