Drive-by downloads are malicious pieces of software that are downloaded to a computer, tablet or smartphone when the user views a compromised Web page or an HTML-based email message that links to a website.
In many cases, the malware will be automatically installed on the system; in almost all cases, the user won't be aware of it.
The malware delivered by a drive-by download is usually classified as a Trojan horse, or Trojan for short, because it deceives the user about the nature of the website or email. In most cases involving compromised websites, the operator of the website has no idea his site is distributing malware.
Once installed, malware delivered by a drive-by download can do a number of different things: log keystrokes, scan the system for files of a personal nature, herd the system into a botnet of similarly compromised machines, infect the Web browser with a banking Trojan that hijacks online-banking sessions or install a "backdoor" that will let in even more malware.
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