A virus hoax is

not a virus

but does pose some

minor threat to the Internet

. Because people will send each other

warnings about viruses

, an

email about a hoax virus

can spread across the Internet rapidly, slowing things down and

clogging up inboxes

.

Here, we explain

what malware is

and what it means to your

computer's security

. Malware is a

computer term

that is used as a catch-all phrase to describe

malicious software and security threats

like

viruses, spyware, Trojans, worms

and more.

Scanning your computer for threats

is one of the main

features of Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus

. Now that you have the program installed and ready to roll, we'll walk you through your first scan and show you what to expect along the way.

Running a scan is only the first step to spyware security. The next step is to

safely remove any spyware or malware

that the scan might have found. We'll show you

how to remove that malware using Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus

and show you how to make sure the selected files are really threats to your system.

Microsoft announced the discovery of a

serious ActiveX threat in Internet Explorer

. This threat affects computers running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft responded quickly and created a page where affected users can go to patch the threat.

On the Internet today spyware has become even more of a threat than viruses. For this reason it's important to make sure you're always running Anti-spyware software on your computer. You can run a combination package that contains both anti-virus and Anti-spyware or you can run a separate program for each.

The Downadup/Conficker worm has already infected over 15 million computers in China, India, the United States, England and other countries. The worm affects primarily corporate networks, but personal computer users need to be vigilant. The worm is spread primarily via pirated software and through network connections. Microsoft released a patch that fixed the security flaws, but the infected systems did not apply the patch, often because the copy of Windows is pirated.