Govware: New name for a special kind of Malware

February 9, 2008

In the last weeks and months I increasingly started hearing more and more the new word Govware, which is a special kind of Malware. I though that this is interesting and informative for some of my readers, which leaded to the point that you read this post now ;-). But first things first – what is Malware? Wikepedia defines it this way:

Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. It is a portmanteau of the words “malicious” and “software”. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.

Govware is Malware which is used by governmental entities to extract information from computers without the knowledge of the user. Govware is a portmanteau of the words “government” and “software”. In Germany Govware is often called “Bundestrojaner”, but the term which is “winning” in the security sector seems to be Govware. I think that this name is coming more from Europe than from the US, but it is really easy and logical – so I think it will stick on both sides of the Atlantic.

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