Difference between Computer Worm and Computer Virus
You think that only humans and animals can get a virus or worms? Think again, computers can also get viruses and worms as well. Many people think that the only way to get a bug on their computer is by opening an infected email message. That's not the case; there is no need for human involvement in contaminating a computer with some forms of bugs. All it takes is to browse the internet and you can easily be infected. If you have no protection against these things, then you could be in serious risk of contamination.
How They Spread
There is more than one way in which a bug can be spread. Viruses usually come either attached to an email message or attached to something that you may have downloaded from a web site or file sharing program. Always have some kind of scan ready to go before you open anything attached to an email or before opening anything you have downloaded especially if it came from a site that is unknown. However, with a worm you can easily pick these up by simply surfing the web and never knowing they are there.
What Do They Do?
A virus is never a good thing. Once opened it will infect a part of your computer and then work on finding a way to spread all throughyourcomputer and slowly corrupting your entire computer eating away at important data until your computer crashes and is totally wiped out. Others will simply make holes in your security that can allow others to get into your system and steal information from your computer. Worms are not usually as harmful as a virus, however they will use up bandwidth and they can spread a lot faster and easier than a virus can.
How Can They Be Stopped?
There are many ways that you can stop these bugs from entering your system. Before you do anything with a new computer always be sure to get up to date Anti-virus and Anti-spy protection so that you will always be warned about threats to your system, and gives you a chance to stop them. Always keep your software up to date and you should run a quick scan of your computer every day and a complete scan once a week.
Similarities and Differences
There are many types of viruses as well as worms some worms can be non-threatening and some viruses will crash your computer. No matter what the case or how they may spread you should always be ready for any possible threat to your computer. Even though something like a worm may not cause damage to your system it can still eat up your bandwidth and slow your computer connection down. So always be sure to update your system regularly and run a scan as often as possible to prevent corruption.
- Viruses spread through attachments, worms spread from surfing
- A virus will wipe out your system whereas a worm is relatively harmless
- Good updated virus protection and a scan once a day will help protect your computer
