Scareware and Adware/PUP/PUA

As if advertising wasn't annoying enough!

Scareware

Program designed to scare or intimidate users through fake security alerts/pop-up messages that claim that the user system is infected or that the police caught him doing something illegal and needs to pay a fine. Whatever scary story that panics the victim, clouding its common sense, so it clicks the pop-up and downloads another deadlier and harder to infiltrate malware or just directly pays a fake fine. As its usually doing no harm to the system, it's very easy to bypass the security systems, it's the victim itself that will ignore all security alerts and download the "true" malware. Very related to social engineering.

Adware/PUP/PUA

While not harmful to the system in a meaningful way, still malware nonetheless and an intrusion to the user privacy that can be a gateway to worse problems. Although very similar and often related, we can dissect them into three definitions:

• Adware: software that shows advertisements in a very intrusive way: browser banners, pop-up windows, notifications, in the past the infamous browser bars, etc. The main function being always present in the user system to farm the clicks and ad impressions. Would not be considered malware, just a very bad user decision, not being that it's installed without the knowledge of the user, usually as a part of another program that will make the installation very subtle or almost invisible.

• PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program): this term is used to describe programs that while not being malicious by nature, are unwanted because they are installed without the knowledge of the user and can initiate actions not decided by the user like, related to adware, adding an ad into your browser.

• PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application): term often interchanged with PUP or used as the same, while PUP refers as programs, software that executes a conjunction of instructions on a system, PUA refers more explicitly to Applications, software understood as a program too, but more focused on being manipulated by the end user (pretty and easy).