All that you need to know about worms… And the deadliest one is….??
A virus needs to have a host program in order to spread while worms can propagate on their own. Worms are the worst since they can function without human aid.
Like viruses, worms can copy themselves, but they are entirely self-contained. Actually the worms can be developed to do a lot of harm, such as corrupting programs and deleting files and they mostly affect networks.
A worm can be put into a network and then it is capable of self copying itself, and this behavior can cause a drastic damages. Routers need to use memory and processor time and worms can cause them to become overwhelmed. This can create a slow down on the network and instability.
A virus doesn’t need to delete files before it does harm since they can cause the CPU to be always busy, leaving no other resources for the other programs that need to run.
A worm can carry so called “payloads”, which are other kinds of malwares, such as backdoor programs and spyware that may be used to track your activities on the computer while a backdoor is a hidden point of access on your computer which can be used by hackers to steal information from your computer or to send spam.
For home computer users the payload of a worm is the worst threat. A payload can be developed to manipulate your computer security by turning off your antivirus or by opening up ports in your computer!
How do they circulate?
Worms, however, can be spread through attachments in email so you need to be careful when you’re opening mail from sources that you don’t recognize or when you’re getting files that are unexpected.
USB drives can generally catch a virus or worm easily and circulate them around big time!
However certain malicious attack may come even without any external attachments through the internet directly!
What can you do about ‘em…?
You can set up a firewall to protect your computer from worms, so that it will restrict traffic on the network as well as put a “cloak” over your computer. If no one can see your computer it can’t be used to spread worms across the network.
Make sure to scan any external drives such as USB drives before plugging them into your computer!
Even with all these precautions your computer can be infected. You might notice that your computer is working slowly or that it is rebooting itself and even your access to the Internet can become slow!
If you think that your computer has a worm you need to scan it with antivirus software. If the worm can’t be removed you can always find the worm removal instructions on the Internet.
And the worst one is…
Well it’s hard to answer this as there have been many annoying deadly malwares detected over time, however supposedly the worst worm ever was known as “MyDoom”, first released in January of 2004 and was sent around by email that had a subject line that said “Andy; I’m just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry…!!”
The author of this worm was never discovered but some people think that the worm was created to attack SCO, a software company. The email was programmed to hit the website of SCO with loads of Internet traffic, eventually reaching the Internet and causing a world wide Internet slow-down!!!
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Filed Under: Internet
