What's the difference between a Virus and a Malware?

I see many products advertised as being Antivirus + Antimalware.

I always thought a Virus was malware.

So what's the difference?

 

I think virus is a more specific term, because there are trojans, rootkits etc.
But if my brainz and common sense is correct malware means Malicious Ware? Which is like a broader term

Correct me if i'm wrong

 

Malware I believe is short for all malicious software. A virus is a malicious program that copies itself and causes harm to your PC. So trojans, viruses, dialers, adware, spyware etc are ALL malware. They are all malicious software.

 

Above answers are correct, virus is a 'species' of malware. Anti-virus is not a good name anymore as traditional viruses are quite unpopular malware as they are not used much anymore. So if your anti-virus would catch only viruses then it would let 99% malicious software through.

 

So Malwarebytes for example, doesn't check for Virus, it only checks for malware?

 

Malware = Virus
Malware = Spyware
Malware = Trojan
Malware = Rootkit
Malware = Worm
Malware = Adware
Malware = Rogue/Scareware
Malware = KeyLogger
See HERE

 

1. A virus is a subset of malware.
2. A virus is a malware but a malware may or may not be a virus.
3. The term anti-virus is outdated. Today's apps are all acting like antimalware.

 

Based on the definitions you've been given, which I agree with at an intuitive level, Malwarebytes does check for viruses since it checks for malware.

 

Not necessary. Malwarebytes checks for malware - but they have never claimed that they check for every type of malware out there. So they may or may not be checking for viruses.

 

As you can see from this thread MBAM does include viruses in its definitions. http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=11007

 

MBAM does indeed remove these categories too, but it focuses on the threats most AV's miss, not on what they already catch. So that explains results of some tests and if you run MBAM real-time, you should also run an AV realtime.

 

Good to know my brains was working correctly

 

Agreed. Thanks for the clarification and to Cheater for pointer to that thread as a reminder. I do run NIS 2011 as primary defense with MBAM realtime or on demand as an adjunct.

 

a virus is malware.malware stands for malicious software. a virus is a malicious software, right?

 

Malware is a piece of bad software, like viruses, worms, spyware and trojans. So malware and viruses are the same thing.

 

What’s the Difference Between Viruses, Trojans, Worms, and Other Malware?

But why bother? There's hardly any difference to the average user. Ultimately, we all know none of those do any good to your PC...and you're far better off without them at all unless you're a researcher, tester or someone who makes $$$ out of them.