A brief history of malware
From ICO wiki
Introduction
Malware is malicious software that can enter, and stay on your computer, and then perform actions without your consent, giving hackers full access to your data, and systems. The malware initially appeared as a form of cybervandalism. So it was used to change the computer's background tasks and access your personal information. Since then, these methods, adopted by cybercriminals, have begun to be used to track information and steal valuable business or personal data.