Generally speaking, clicking OK on a dialog box like that in a webpage will not let the website actually download any files to your computer. That dialog is a JavaScript Alert dialog, and is in and of itself harmless - I wouldn't call it a "hack" per se. It is possible that after clicking OK, the page might redirect to a download, but cicking ok
would not in and of itself cause an infection, unless there were already malicious scripts on the page, in which case, you'd already have been infected.
That being said, this is still a sleazy tactic to use on the web, and is a good example of a misleading UI designed to confuse users into downloading software they may not want. It sounds like this may not actually be a malware site, but for future reference for other sites, you can report badware to various groups such as Google and Microsoft, and they can place the site on the block lists for their browsers. See "how to report a malicious website" for more info on that.
If a website is showing incessant alert dialogs, some browsers will allow you to check a box asking not to show any more alerts from that site. I know Chrome has this capability, and gives you the option after more than 2 dialogs are shown in a row. I'm not sure if Safari does or not.
Some companies use nefarious SEO tactics and flood online review sites with fake positive comments; some will even hire people to write positive reviews for the. I don't know if the company in question is doing this or not, but it is one possibility.
I think that the similitude with biological system (from which the word virus has been taken from) is good.
Like biological viruses causes the cells behavior to be subverted, computer viruses do the same with computer programs.
They also have other similar behavior:
- both computer viruses and biological ones are self-replicant
- both can't live without an host system
- both are made by small pieces of information (DNA versus Binary Instructions)
Best Answer
The difference is in how the code affects you.
The generic term for malicious software is malware. As viruses came about first, many people will use the word "virus" as the generic term. Thus you have to take a look at how the malware operates, hides, and spreads to put a more accurate term to it. Additionally, it's not always clear which category a piece of malware falls into. This is more than most people care to think about, and it's not very practical as anti-virus software cleans them off without making a large deal about the differences. The most practical use of the distinction is to know what your anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software protects you against.
Some specific types of malware: