Cryptographic attacks are methods of evading the security of a cryptographic system by finding weaknesses in such areas as the code, cipher, cryptographic protocol or key management scheme in the cryptographic algorithm. The following are the cryptographic attacks usually performed by an attacker: Known plaintext attack: In a known plaintext attack, an attacker should have both the plaintext and…copy of it with the encrypted data. This is used to find patterns in the cryptographic output that might uncover a vulnerability or reveal a cryptographic key.Chosen ciphertext attack: In this type of attack, an attacker can choose the ciphertext to be decrypted and can then analyze the plaintext output of the event. The early versions of RSA used in SSL were actually vulnerable to this attack.

Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner’s informed consent. 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. The term “computer virus” is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses.

Malware is a program containing sequences of steps to carry out attacks. This has gone through three generations so far.

The first generation is the viruses that spread through e-mail and file sharing methods that require human actions to trigger replication and spreading. Examples of this generation are LoveLetter, Fizzer, and Melissa.
The second generation is worms that exploit operating system or application vulnerabilities through automated means that do not require human interaction.
The third generation malware has been able to carry out even more damage in a smaller amount of time when compared to the malware that falls within the previous generation categories. This generation encompasses a combination of viruses, Trojan horses, and automation. Examples of these are the Blaster, SQL Slammer, Slapper, Sasser, and Witty worms.