From the course: IT Security Foundations: Core Concepts
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Explaining viruses and worms
From the course: IT Security Foundations: Core Concepts
Explaining viruses and worms
- [Instructor] Two common malicious programs are viruses and worms. Viruses can self-replicate yet need a way to propagate to other hosts. Worms are self-propagating malware that can spread on its own. Let's discuss each of these in more detail. A computer virus is like a human virus in that it can self-replicate and spread to other programs within a system. With a computer virus, the results can be something as simple as a new icon on the desktop, or more serious results, such as disabling antivirus or destroying files. In order to spread, a virus must have some way to travel to another host. Viruses can spread via email attachment, downloading files and applications from the internet or from removable media, such as a flash drive. A worm is malware that has the ability to spread without any help from a transport agent, such as an email attachment. A worm can spread and replicate throughout a system consuming…
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