The Worm Virus in Your Computer System
A universal mistake people make when the subject of a computer virus comes up is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they do not mean the same thing. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all hateful programs that can cause severe injury to your computer, but there are disparities among the three, and knowing those distinctions can help you to better defend your computer from their often-harmful effects.
The Virus Replicates
A computer virus fastens itself to a program or file so it can multiply from one computer to another, leaving infection as it moves. Much like human viruses, computer viruses can range in harshness.
Some viruses cause only slightly exasperating effects while others can harm your hardware, software or files. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may survive on your computer but it cannot taint your computer unless you run or open the malicious program.
It is vital to note that a virus cannot spread without human action. People help in the spread of a computer virus, mostly innocently, by sharing infected files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail.
The Worm Spreads
A worm is similar to a virus by its pattern, and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from one computer to another, but unlike a virus, it has the ability to travel without any aid from a person.
A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which allows it to travel independently. The chief hazard with a worm is its capability to reproduce itself on your system. Thus rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a massive overwhelming effect.
One way is a worm sending a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver's address book, and the conquest continues down the line. Due to the copying character of a worm and its potential to tour across networks, the worm takes up too much space in the system memory causing the server to slow down and ultimately stop performing.
How To Protect Against Worms?
The primary step in defending your computer is to make sure that your operating system (OS) is updated. This is essential if you are running a Microsoft Windows OS. Second, you should have anti-virus software set up on your system and ensure that you download updates regularly to guarantee your software has the latest fixes for new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
In addition, you must ensure your anti-virus program has the ability to scan e-mail and files as they are downloaded from the Internet. This will help avert malicious programs from getting into your computer. You must also install a firewall. It is important that you use genuine and full version of such software because most of the free software do not offer complete protection against all possible and latest threats.
A firewall is a method that thwarts illegal use and admission to your computer. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Hardware firewalls offer a robust degree of shield from most kinds of attack coming from the outside world and can be obtained as a stand-alone product or in broadband routers.
Unfortunately, when fighting worms, a hardware firewall may be less successful than a software firewall, as it could possibly disregard-rooted worms in outgoing e-mails and see this as usual network traffic. For individual home users, the most accepted firewall option is a software firewall. A good software firewall will shield your computer from external efforts to monitor or gain access to your computer, and usually offers added guard against the most common Trojan programs or e-mail worms. The flip side to software firewalls is that they will only defend the computer they are set up on, not the network they are in.
