What is the Malware Factor?

The term "Malware Factor" is a term for the cumulative impact of computer code abuse, which typically takes the form of malicious code or malware. I coined this term because I needed—and think the world needs—a convenient means of referencing this phenomenon. The thinking behind the malware factor goes like this:

• the misuse and abuse of information and communications technology (ICT) threatens to undermine all present and future human endeavor, from raising children to reining in pandemics; and,
• it is helpful to refer to this as “the malware factor” because it is enabled by, and embodied in, malicious software, or malware, and embedded in the infrastructure of our postdigital world.

Here are some articles that discuss the malware factor:

• The Malware Factor: The biggest problem our postdigital world has refused to face, so far
• The Covid Effect means we can no longer ignore the Malware Factor
• Not even 10% of us trust tech firms to protect our personal information
• What's next if only 9% of us trust tech firms to protect our personal information?