Worm, Virus, Blended virus/threat Trojan/ Trojan Horse
There are many types of computer threat like virus, Trojan horse worms, blended threats etc. The virus came into existence first of all since people take all these threats for virus but in fact all these are different and their actions severeability are also different. These are explained below in brief -
Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse Blended threats
The computer virus is a program file.
Similar to a human virus, severity of a computer virus can range mild to severe.
A computer virus is capable to spread from one computer to another, leaving infections intact as it travels.
A virus cannot be spread without a human action, like running an infected program, using an infected removable drive or downloading an infected file.
Though a virus may exist on your computer but cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the program to which it is attached.
Because a virus is spread by human action people will unknowingly continue the spread of a computer virus by sharing infected files or sending emails with viruses as attachments in the email.
Virus can spread by human action only and people unknowingly or intentionally continue to spread computer virus by sharing infecting files or sending emails with viruses as attachments in the email and through removable media.
Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, they can not run without it.
A viruses is capable to self-replicate and reproduce to infect other files or program.
Hence we can say a virus can’t spread without a human action, it is self replicating and needs an executable file to run.
What is a Trojan/Trojan horse
Those receiving a Trojan Horse through any mean are usually tricked to open or download them as if they are receiving legitimate software and from a source also looks to be legitimate.
A Trojan Horse is named after the tricky horse used in the war of troy and in no way it is less tricky than the one used in the war of troy.
When Trojan activated on a computer, the results and damage may vary from mild to severe depending on the purpose they are designed for.
Initially a Trojan Horse, appears to be a useful software but while installed cunningly it will damage your computer severely when runs on it.
Some Trojans are designed for more annoying actions like changing home page, changing your desktop, adding strange icons to your active desktop and changing default search etc.
Trojans are notorious to create backdoor on infected computers to give access to cyber criminals systems and allow sensitive information to be compromised.
More serious damage includes deleting files, not opening some files, disabling software including security software and destroying valuable information on your hard drive.
Thus a Trojan does not reproduce or self-replicate, requires a human action to execute, deceives by appearing to be a useful but damages while runs.
What is a worm
Like other computer threats a Worm also spread from one computer to another computer, but a virus needs a human action for it, but a worm has a capability to travel without any human action.
A worm is just similar to a virus by design and it is considered to be a sub-class of a virus.
A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, to travel unaided.
For example whenever an email is sent to multiple address the worm will send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, it replicates and sends itself to each addressee and continues on the down line automatically.
The self replicating capability of a worm is the biggest danger with a worm on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it will send thousands of its copies thus creating a huge devastating effect.
The self replicating nature and its capability to travel across networks a worm results in consuming too much system memory or the network bandwidth.
A worm attacks such as the much-talked-about Blaster Worm, revealed that the worms have been designed to cyber criminals to take control of target computer remotely.
The consuming of too much system memory or the network bandwidth causes Web servers, network servers and individual computers to become unresponsive.
Thus a worm is capable of replicating itself on system, and it does not require any human action to spread.
What Is a Blended virus/threat
A blended threat is a mix or a bundle or bundles of the worst aspects of viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other malicious code into one single threat and it is a more sophisticated attack.
Blended threats are capable of using servers and Internet vulnerabilities to initiate and then spread an attack.
Blended threats cause severe harm to the infected system or network.
Blended threats are capable of propagating without human action.
Blended threats are capable of multiple malicious actions, like modifying your exe files, HTML files and registry keys at the same time.
Blended threats are capable of causing damage to multiple areas of your system/network at one time.
Blended threats use multiple methods to propagate.
Blended threats attack may come simultaneously from multiple points.
Blended threats are capable of installing.
Blended threats are capable of using multiple modes of transmission. A single blended threat may use all routes like e-mail, IRC and file-sharing.
Blended threats are considered to be the most worst risk to the system security.
Thus Blended threats are most dangerous, bundles of viruses, worms and Trojan horses and don’t require any human action to propagate.
trojan horse virus, Trojan horse virus, virus vs worm vs trojan, virus, worm trojan horse spyware, difference between a worm and a virus, What is the difference between worm virus and Trojan horse, What type of threat combines worm virus and Trojan horse characteristics, What is the difference between a virus worm and Trojan horse and a blended threat, worms and trojan horses are examples of worm, viruses, worms and trojan horses are types of malicious code, what is the main difference between a virus and a trojan, difference between virus, worm and trojan horse in tabular form