14 DAY TRIAL // Things aren't always clear when you're talking about cyber security, and this is why some times, things go bad. Malware is a vague term and refers to a lot of threats, it comes from "malicious" and "software" and a lot of people use this word to dub any cyber-threat. Some don't use "malware" but use "virus" instead. Like I've said many times before, people are insecure because they have no idea what they're facing on the web.
A lot of common users don't actually know too much about viruses. They know that "viruses mess up your computer" - that's the most common thing you're going to hear. But they don't really know the difference between a Trojan and a worm. Just go around asking, if you don't believe me.
Now, this fact actually means that they can't protect themselves the right way. "Malware" to Trojans bots, worms, keyloggers and such is just like "Undead" to ghost, zombie and vampire. The term involves a lot of other terms, and this is why viruses need to be better classified. For example, you can have a good anti-virus, but you won't be protected against adware, or against spyware. Those are nasty threats as well, but a lot of users do not know that, they think that they're protected against anything, once they deploy an anti-virus.
After reading this article I also started sharing the idea that malware should get better classified since it's not all equally evil, and further more, this shouldn't be done for us geeks, because we're not the ones with infected computers. The normal user should be aware of the types of threats that are lurking on the web, and that his AV might not protect his or her machine against everything. This is just a classic military tactic - know your enemy to fight it better!