Abuse

Updated: 12/31/2022 by Computer Hope

Abuse may refer to any of the following:

Frustrated man punching laptop with computer problem.

1. In general, abuse describes misuse, cruelty, or violence against a person, animal, or thing. When describing abuse against another person, abuse can come in the form of physical or verbal abuse. For example, someone online may verbally abuse someone they don't like on a social network. Abusing a thing may come in the form of causing it physical damage, interrupting its ability to operate, or making unauthorized changes. For example, someone may DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack a website.

Other examples of computer abuse can include cyberbullying, hacking, identity theft, malware, phishing, or any other computer crime.

Note

Any abuse is against a company's TOS (terms of service) and could result in you getting banned or otherwise punished.

2. ABUSE is the name of a computer game. See our ABUSE game page for further information on this game.

Computer crime, Cyberbully, Security terms