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Computer Virus & Worms, What Are They?

Everyone using computers on a network is aware that security is a necessity. However, while many people have heard terms such as “virus” and “worm”, very few people know what they are.

Malware

Viruses and worms are two types of computer programs used by people to take control of your computer. They are classes of something called “malware”, a shortened version of “malicious software”.

The oldest type of malware was is the virus. It is code that is hidden in other innocuous looking code that, when executed, can steal information from your computer, damage your computer, or just use your computer to help someone else attack other computers. Like a real virus, which is hidden in a living cell, a computer virus must use another program to travel and to begin execution. One example is a virus in an email attachment. It does nothing until you click on the executable attachment, running it. At that point, the virus can copy itself to your computer, using your system to make more copies to sent out.

A worm is different than a virus in that, as with real worms, it can move by itself. People can create software worms that look for holes in your network security, copy themselves, and then start the new copies running. They do not need you to do anything to help them, they can take over your computer by themselves.

Protecting Networks

The best way to protect computers against viruses, worms and other kinds of malware is to prevent the computers from ever getting attacked. That is why corporations, governments and educational facilities use separate hardware as a “firewall” between the Internet and the Local Area Network (LAN). It can see attacks and remove them before they reach your computers. However, to protect a large network takes a large and expensive network appliance. That's not typically affordable for small businesses and home networks, even if the computer users understood the complexity of the appliances.

Protecting SMB & Home Networks

While most personal computers have some kind of software for security, pure software protection is not sufficient. There are many attacks that can work around software, attacking the operating system before the security software has a chance to act. That's why businesses have external hardware to protect the full network. Until recently, that hardware was too large and expensive to be of use to individual computer users.

Using flash memory, Linux and other leading edge hardware and software technology, companies have created USB devices to provide network separation and true protection. A small application on the laptop can prevent any network connections from working unless a USB security device is attached. The device can then trap all network activity before it can do anything to your laptop. As an added benefit, as the device is designed for security, it runs those applications faster than a PC can and also frees PC resources in order to improve laptop performance.

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