Just the other day, I was browsing the internet and clicked on a link that someone had posted on Twitter.  It wasn’t a “work from home” link or “make millions by eating Doritos” scam; it was simply a link to a website with some interesting info.

At least that’s what I thought.

Thankfully, Google Chrome (my internet browser of choice) was smart enough to fend off my apparent stupidity, taking me to what could basically be described as a “are you really sure you want to load this, because I’m quite certain it will ravage you computer?” page.  Funny thing is, I actually gave it a thought.  I’d never run into this before and considered it might be a silly ploy to get me to click something and be courted by a new, better, sleeker virus protection software.  But it wasn’t that at all.  It really was threatening.  Chrome wasn’t just messing with me.

So I backed off and left it alone.

Shortly after, I started wondering exactly what Chrome was protecting my computer from when it said there was “malware” on the site I was attempting to access.  After doing about 90 seconds of research, I quickly found that malware is basically anything that falls under the scope of malicious software:  i.e. viruses.  These are broad terms, understandably, but Wikipedia defines malware as “…software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner’s informed consent.  The term ‘computer virus‘ is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses.”

OK, so I get the basic gist of this.  Good software vs. bad software.  Good vs. evil.  Right vs. wrong.

The nagging question for me, however, is why?   Read More→