malware

Etymology

Blend of malicious + software or from mal- + -ware.

noun

1. (computing) Software which has been designed to operate in a malicious, undesirable manner.
   In a follow-up attack that hit Kyiv’s power grid a year later, the suspects used a second piece of malware, called Industroyer, to cut power for an hour, the indictment said. The malware, according to experts, posed one of the greatest digital threats to critical infrastructure since Stuxnet, the computer attack by the United States and Israel that took out Iran’s uranium centrifuges in 2009. 2020-10-19, “U.S. Charges Russian Intelligence Officers in Major Cyberattacks”, in New York Times