Malware refers to malicious software such as viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and rootkits that are designed to disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information, or gain unauthorized access to private computer systems. Common forms of malware transmission are through email attachments and websites. Malware detection methods used by antivirus software include signature-based detection by comparing files to known malware signatures as well as heuristic analysis to identify new or variant malware.