VER OU VIRUS ?

VER OU VIRUS ?

Worms and viruses represent malicious executable code whose objective is to install itself on computer systems, maintain itself there and replicate itself. The difference between the two is essentially their mode of propagation. The worm propagates completely autonomously across the network by exploiting a vulnerability or a configuration error. It therefore requires no intervention on the part of the user. Some famous worms have been able to propagate across the planet in just a few hours, by automatically infecting vulnerable systems accessible via the Internet (in 2003, the SQL Slammer worm infected 75,000 systems in just ten minutes). The virus, on the other hand, survives in a host (an infected program, for example, but also a removable disk, etc.) and can only propagate when the latter is executed by the user. It will then look for other healthy hosts to infect in order to survive. The actions that worms or viruses can then take are at the discretion of their designer.

Between worms, viruses, zombies and other “USB Killers”, we understand better why October is cybersecurity month…