Changes

====Purposes====

====Purposes====

Broadly speaking, malware has one or more of the following purposes.

Broadly speaking, malware has one or more of the following purposes.

*Making money.  The purpose is to earn money the malware maker, or distributor.  This can be done through blackmail, by showing advertisements (called [[Adware]]), by stealing information such as passwords or credit card numbers (credential stealers), or by requiring users to pay to gain access to their own data (called [[Ransomware]]).

*Making money.  The purpose is to earn money the malware maker, or distributor.  This can be done through blackmail, by showing advertisements (called [[Adware]]), by stealing information such as passwords or credit card numbers (credential stealers), by requiring users to pay to gain access to their own data (called [[Ransomware]]), or mining [[cryptocurrency]].

*Damaging data or hardware.  The purpose is simply to destroy data (such as deleting files) or hardware (such as [[Stuxnet]]).

*Damaging data or hardware.  The purpose is simply to destroy data (such as deleting files) or hardware (such as [[Stuxnet]]).

*Denying service.  The purpose is to interfere with access to a service, such as a web site or a public utility.  It can target local or national infrastructure, corporations, or average users.   

*Denying service.  The purpose is to interfere with access to a service, such as a web site or a public utility.  It can target local or national infrastructure, corporations, or average users.