Describe the differences between spyware, scareware, and ransomware.

Spyware is a software that secretly monitors and collects personal information about users and sends it to someone else. The information is gathered by logging keystrokes, monitoring websites visited, and scanning documents on the computer's hard drive. Spyware can also hijack a browser, replacing a computer's home page with a page the spyware creator wants you to visit. Scareware is software that is often malicious, is of little or no benefit, and is sold using scare tactics. That is, it uses fear to motivate some sort of user action. The most common scare tactic is a dire warning that a computer is infected with a virus, spyware, or some other catastrophic problem. When activated, well-written ransomware can lock users out of all their programs and data by encrypting them. However, ransomware is not as common as other malware. Most ransomware is delivered via websites or a spam e-mail that motivates the recipient to open an infected file.

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