Dusty's World - virus, worm and trojan

The Virus, Worm and Trojan

There are three main types of troublesome pests on computers. The virus, the worm and the trojan. All are produced by sad little people that don't have a life, are very small minded in that they have a grudge against someone and take sit out on everyone else and quite possibly are spotty faced little nobodies that sit hunched over a computer in a closet every day trying to think up ways of making everyone's life as miserable as thier own.

Being connected to the internet is a very easy way of contracting a virus, worm or trojan and is mainly done through downloading and installing other programs, although there are other ways of contracting one. So let's take a quick look at what each one is.

The Virus

This is a small program that is installed on your computer without you knowing about it. It attaches itself to other programs and after you have run the program this little pest works away unnoticed in the back ground doing any number of things to your system. and can do all sorts of things, some of these are:

Those are just some of the things they can do, a search of the internet for ' virus ' will no doubt bring up untold stories of virus activity, what they are and how to get rid of them.

The Worm

Unlike a virus a worm does not need to attach itself to to another program to get around a network or install itself on your computer, it uses the automatic file transfer methods of computers to get around. Also unlike a virus, it doesn't alter any programs so they run normally. Apparently, all they do is replicate themselves, yup, that is all but this can fill your computer memory and / or hard drive with code and your system will start to run slowly as it runs out of resources, (memory and hard disk space are two such resources). So, a worm is a tricky and difficult thing to see on your computer.

The Trojan

A trojan is and works in a similar way to the Trojan Horse in Greek history where the Greeks sent the Trojans a present of a wooden horse inside which were Greek soldiers waiting to pounce and do untold damage to the trojans. Similarly, A trojan is a program that is designed to be of some use, (to make it attractive to someone), who then downloads it.

After unpacking (if it is archived) or installing it, the user will find out that the program is not what it seems and the computer has been infected. Effectively, it is a virus in disguise.



The Virus, Worm and Trojan There are three main types of troublesome pests on computers. The virus, the worm and the trojan. All are produced by sad little people that don't have a life, are very small minded in that they have a grudge against someone and take sit out on everyone else and quite possibly are spotty faced little nobodies that sit hunched over a computer in a closet every day trying to think up ways of making everyone's life as miserable as thier own. Being connected to the internet is a very easy way of contracting a virus, worm or trojan and is mainly done through downloading and installing other programs, although there are other ways of contracting one. So let's take a quick look at what each one is. The Virus This is a small program that is installed on your computer without you knowing about it. It attaches itself to other programs and after you have run the program this little pest works away unnoticed in the back ground doing any number of things to your system. and can do all sorts of things, some of these are: Replicate themselves in order to use all your resources up and crash your computer Change the exixtsing files in such as way that they become unusable, for example, alter all the Windows executable files so that they can't run and you would have to reinstall windows (effectively reformat and reinstall your computer Read all the addresses in the address book of your e-mail program and send off messages, including itself to all your contacts, therefore spreading itself more readily Anything it can do to make your computing experience a pain. Those are just some of the things they can do, a search of the internet for ' virus ' will no doubt bring up untold stories of virus activity, what they are and how to get rid of them. The Worm Unlike a virus a worm does not need to attach itself to to another program to get around a network or install itself on your computer, it uses the automatic file transfer methods of computers to get around. Also unlike a virus, it doesn't alter any programs so they run normally. Apparently, all they do is replicate themselves, yup, that is all but this can fill your computer memory and / or hard drive with code and your system will start to run slowly as it runs out of resources, (memory and hard disk space are two such resources). So, a worm is a tricky and difficult thing to see on your computer. The Trojan A trojan is and works in a similar way to the Trojan Horse in Greek history where the Greeks sent the Trojans a present of a wooden horse inside which were Greek soldiers waiting to pounce and do untold damage to the trojans. Similarly, A trojan is a program that is designed to be of some use, (to make it attractive to someone), who then downloads it. After unpacking (if it is archived) or installing it, the user will find out that the program is not what it seems and the computer has been infected. Effectively, it is a virus in disguise.