A PC worm is a program which duplicates itself over a system.
A PC worm varies from a PC infection in that a PC worm can run itself. An infection needs a host program to run, and the infection code keeps running as a feature of the host program. A PC worm can spread without a host program, albeit some cutting edge PC worms additionally use documents to stow away inside.
Understood instances of the PC worm
The first PC worm was (maybe coincidentally) released on the Internet by Robert Tappan Morris in 1988. TheInternet Worm utilized send letters, fingerd, and rsh/rexec to spread itself over the Internet.
The SQL Slammer Worm of 2003 utilized a weakness in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to spread itself over the Internet. The Blaster Worm, additionally of 2003, utilized a defenselessness in Microsoft DCOM RPC to spread itself.
The Melissa worm of 1999, the Sobig worms of 2003 and the Mydoom worm of 2004 all spread through email. These worms shared a few highlights of a trojan steed , in that they spread by alluring a client to open a contaminated email connection.
Mydoom additionally endeavored to spread itself through thepeer-to-peer record sharingapplication KaZaA. The Mydoom worms endeavored aDenial of Service (DoS) attackagainst SCO and Microsoft.Protecting yourself against PC worms
PC worms which spread through vulnerabilities in system administrations can best be secured against by staying up with the latest in introducing patches given by working framework and application merchants. This incorporates worms like SQL Slammer and Blaster.
PC worms which spread like trojan steeds can best be guarded against by not opening connections in your email. These tainted connections are not restricted to .EXE documents. Microsoft Word and Excel records can contain macros which spread contamination.