WHAT ARE VIRUSES, WORMS AND TROJANS

VIRUS, WORM , TROJAN .................all of u who are on Internet, must have come across these names often. Most people don't know the exact meaning of these words, and treat them as same.

First of all to start with, we should know, what these all mean ?

VIRUSES, WORMS, TROJANS........They all aren't the same.

Trojans - files carrying hidden malicious payloads

A Trojan refers to a program that appears as something you may think is safe, but hidden inside is usually something harmful, probably a worm or a virus. The lure of Trojans is that you may download a game or a picture, thinking it's harmless, but once you execute this file (run it), the worm or virus gets to work. Sometimes they'll only do things to annoy you, but usually a worm or virus will cause damage to your system.The Trojans mostly get the backdoor entry to your system and paste the virus embedded with it to your system which then causes damage.

Viruses - computer programs designed to cause trouble to your computer

The basic defination of a computer Virus is one who can act as 'living being' by propagating itself. It is actually artificially created creature with ability to self propagate in the virtual medium. Bt now days, as Viruses are mostly produced to harm the systems and networks, defination has been little altered. Nowdays Viruses are reffered as computer programs with the sole purpose of destroying data on our computers. The virus may only destroy unimportant files, or it may decide to erase all of your document files. A virus can cause an infected computer to do funny things on certain dates, as well as issue serious commands such as erasing our Registry file, thus disabling the operation and booting up of our computers.

Viruses are spread through executable files we either get from friends, download off the net, or install through a floppy disk. A virus will often come disguised under the cloak of a Trojan, which is the carrier for the virus.

Worms - actively replicate themselves

Worms operate differently. Do you remember the Star Trek show called 'The Trouble with Tribbles'?. These little creatures just kept replicating themselves, each one multiplying themselves over and over. Worms act much the same way.

Worms generally come through our email client, but people can also get infected if they accept a Trojan File which has as the payload a worm. If you receive a worm program through your email, and then execute it, this program sends the worm file out to all that are listed in your email address book. If you work in a major corporation, this could means hundreds of people, and so the multiplying continues.