Is 'malware' too lame a name for the nasty stuff out there?

What’s in a name? For one security expert, not enough when the name is “malware.”

In a recent blog post, Seculert CTO Aviv Raff argued that, especially in the security industry, being, “stuck using the same old terms to describe completely new things,” can be dangerous.

“Failing to grasp an old term’s new meaning can pose a significant danger to the stability, success and in some cases, survival of an enterprise,” he wrote. “And in my view, there is no clearer example of this than the term ‘malware.’” Raff’s premise is that when the term was coined, malware was typically the province of “script kiddies,” and while it could be damaging, it was rarely devastating, and could be defeated by good perimeter security.