Payload
In computing, the Payload is the information that is transported over a network and is the purpose of the transport. Data sent over the Internet consists of header information and actual data. The header information consists of the source and destination of the data packet. The actual data is called the payload. The payload contains the data still needed after transmission. The header information and overhead data are needed only for sending the data packet. These are removed from the packet after transmission.
Think of it as a physical package you ordered. The box and address are only needed to ship the package. What is in the package is kept and the box is discarded. The contents of the package are the same as the payload. Of the entire data package, the payload is the only data received by the target system. Examples of payload are text, images, tones and speech.
Payload virus
When talking about computer security, payload means the final result of a virus. The payload is an action part of a computer virus which takes effect only after some time. Thus, one is initially unaware of the virus when the computer becomes infected. It is often on a random day when a strange notification appears and the action part goes into effect.
This message is usually a notification asking the user to take an action. In the case of the Ambulance virus, an ambulance appears on the screen. With the Casino virus, it is a message asking if you want to gamble to save your data. These are some examples of how the payload works in a virus.
