Difference between Virus-Worms-Trojan Horses and SpyWare

The most of peoples make blunder when the topic of a computer virus arises is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer, but there are differences among the three, and knowing those differences can help you to better protect your computer from their often damaging effects.

Computer virus

(1) Attaches itself to a program or file so it can spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. Much like human viruses

(2) Computer viruses can range in severity: Some viruses cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files.

(3) Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. It is important to note that a virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going.

(4) People continue the spread of a computer virus, mostly unknowingly, by sharing infecting files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail.

Worm

(1) A worm is similar to a virus by its design, and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, it has the capability to travel without any help from a person. A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which allows it to travel unaided.

(2) The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect. One example would be for a worm to send 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 manifest continues on down the line.

(3) Due to the copying nature of a worm and its capability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers and individual computers to stop responding. In more recent worm attacks such as the much-talked-about Blaster Worm the worm has been designed to tunnel into your system and allow malicious users to control your computer remotely.

Trojan Horse

(1) Trojan Horse is full of as much trickery as the mythological Trojan Horse it was named after. The Trojan Horse, at first glance will appear to be useful software but will actually do damage once installed or run on your computer.

(2) Those on the receiving end of a Trojan Horse are usually tricked into opening them because they appear to be receiving legitimate software or files from a legitimate source. When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system.

(3) Trojans are also known to create a backdoor on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

Spyware-Adware

(1) Spyware and Adware collect information about you without appropriate notice and consent.

(2) Spyware can get installed on your computer in a number of ways. One way is via a virus. Another way is for it to be secretly downloaded and installed with other software you've chosen to install. You and I both know how easy it is to skip reading all the documentation on a free program and just click "OK." That's often how they get you.

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Computer Viruses - What Are They and What Do They Do?

A virus is known to many as an agent that causes different diseases. They have many modes of infecting all of the members of the animal kingdom. Although there are different types of viruses, they have one commonality; they are all harmful. Nowadays, the term virus has taken a different turn when it comes to the meaning. Now, it is more commonly associated with anything that brings a computer to its demise or to something close to that.

Computer virus has to be the most popular phrase when the thought of internet comes to the minds of most people. The reason is that they remember the destruction it brings. Computers have changed the way all people live. It has become important in all aspects of living may it be politics, religion or business. Just when we thought it could not get better, the Internet came along. Among all of the benefits of the internet, the one that people are most happy about is how it made communication much easier. In the old days, the only connection you have to your loved ones in other countries is through mail or telephone. Now, there are more efficient and faster ways of communicating. You can send an e-mail or a private message which will only take a few seconds and your message will be received immediately.

This advancement took a tragic turn when someone smart enough decided to make a computer virus. A computer virus, sticking to the true meaning of the word virus, is something that infects a computer, jams its programs and causes many problems to the user. It can bring any time of destruction from a small computer glitch to making your whole computer system crash.

Sadly, there are many ways that a virus is transferred from one computer to another. Storage devices such as USB can be a medium to transfer a virus. If two or more computers are connected via a network connection, a virus can be transferred. The most devastating news is that not only can it be transferred offline; it can be transferred online too. The internet became the most notorious aspect of the computer when it comes to getting it infected.

This is why the whole world, or the people who uses computers, rejoiced at the birth of antiviruses. These are the programs that are designed to track down and get rid of computer viruses from its system. Now, there are many ways on how to protect your computer using antiviruses. Although there are many antivirus programs out in the market today, they have one common factor: they prioritize prevention. They gave importance of detecting a virus that is threatening to invade a computer so that they can block it before it can cause any harm. Now, antiviruses are also wise enough to detect viruses that are already in the computer before they were installed and delete or clean it.

Aside from antiviruses, the users can also follow guidelines to prevent their computer from getting infected such as don’t access sites that are about pornography since most viruses are found here.
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