Fireball (software)
Malware has the ability of running any code on victim computers, such as downloading an arbitrary file and hijacking and manipulating infected user's web traffic in order to generate advertisement revenue. It installs plugins and additional configurations to boost its advertisements, and has potential to turn into a distributor for any additional malware. Malware is spread mostly via bundling. It is installed on a victim's machine alongside a wanted program, often without the user’s consent. Digital marketing agency Rafotech has been indicated as producer of the software. The same company has been accused to host fake search engines, which redirect the queries to yahoo.com or google.com. The fake search engines include tracking pixels used to collect private information from users. Fireball manipulates the infected browsers and turn their default search engines and home pages into the above mentioned fake search engines, which enable the software to spy on users of the infected browsers.
Malware
The best-known types of malware, viruses and worms, are known for the manner in which they spread, rather than any specific types of behavior. A computer virus is software that embeds itself in some other executable software (including the operating system itself) on the target system without the user's knowledge and consent and when it is run, the virus is spread to other executables. On the other hand, a "worm" is a stand-alone malware software that "actively" transmits itself over a network to infect other computers. These definitions lead to the observation that a virus requires the user to run an infected software or operating system for the virus to spread, whereas a worm spreads itself.