To a complete computer numpty.....

What's the difference between a computer 'virus' and 'worm' ?
(I ask this because of the very recent "NHS" hack in England and Scotland......and I want to TRY and understand.)

I tried looking this up on my 'Anti-Virus' provider.......and couldn't really see much/any difference between the two.

Is this right ? (As an example).

I've decided to cause 'mischief' on the 'intraweb'......

I send my good friend, Nobby, an email (with an attachment, with a virus on it.....He doesn't notice and passes it on to his circle of friends...they send it on).....So that virus has been spread, potentially all over the World......)

I send Nobby  a 'worm'.......Can I do this, to an individual ?.......This doesn't require Nobby to do anything...The worm 'has a life of its own' and will pass itself on, whatever happens ?

Cheers - Confused of Wales

I think nobby has lots of worms already.

I think a virus infects a program and replicates itself only when you run that program. A worm is a type of program that can work all by itself (ie replicate itself independent of what you do on the computer).

There is also a Trojan (horse) -that attacks the operating system, and is generally fatal. According to Today this morning it was massive world wide attack, by criminals.

Here is a pretty good article on the differences:
https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH98539.html

Basically viruses need a carrier file (you send fsn a contaminated Excel file which he shares with population of Runcorn, every individual who opens the file gets zapped)

Worms are hunter/seekers. Once inside the security firewall they will seek out every computer attached to the network.

Trojans can be the delivery system for both the above. Fsn sends you an executable file that says it will organize your sheep by weight and wool length. Happily you run the program and it suddenly goes to the dark side.

This is how I understand it anyway.

Sound bout rite to moi

Of course I am not personally worried about this 'cause I got Windows 10!   

Quote from: ianrs54 on 13 May 2017, 10:42:15 AM

There is also a Trojan (horse) -that attacks the operating system, and is generally fatal. According to Today this morning it was massive world wide attack, by criminals.

Not quite true Ian.

Encountered quite a few known Trojans at my ex-work. We usually had a specific disinfection tool which actally worked well.

How a piece of malware is delivered, and what it does can vary hugely. And the delivery mechanism and payload really don't need to be linked to each other.

I was at my local hospital on Friday afternoon witth my wife - who needed urgent treatment - it was another whole level of worry as the staff where busily going round switching off all the computers and disconnecting network cables. A huge amount of the hospital ground to a halt as patients couldn't be booked in, notes couldn't be shared, equipment couldn't communicate its results to doctors, etc. The staff where great, and their major incident plan was working - but much of that plan is to divert incoming patients elsewhere. As with many major incident plans they work in isolation (compare with 7/7 bombings where many companies evacuated to their back up sites, to find out that they shared that site with another organisation who had already got there).

One advantage was that we got a lot of care from the nurses, as they had so few patients to deal with! She is still in hospital, but is at least over the first hurdle.

Yes but - lets keep it as nasty as possible for the IT challenged.

One thing - last I heard you cant get a virus directly from email, but from links in it - so DONT open those links if you don't know.....

And at least I'm not on XP.

IanS

No.....Not on XP, either.

Thanks for all the answers.....I think I'd basically got the gist.

I was under the impression that most/all 'government' PCs stayed on XP....And that Microsoft cut a deal with those involved, so that 'the government' WOULD get security updates for XP (for a price)...... to save having to swap all their systems to an updated/more secure version of Windows ?

(Didn't stop me backing everything up onto two separate external hard-drives, yesterday !) 

Only thing I'd be gutted to 'loose' are all the photo's.

Cheers -Phil

Quote from: petercooman on 13 May 2017, 09:51:18 AM
I think nobby has lots of worms already.

I suspect he also has a virus or two!

Best wishes for your wife's speedy recovery, fred.

[As for the rest of the comments ..... still gobbledygook!  ]

Same from me, Forbes !......Sorry, I missed that !

Cheers - Phil.

Thanks guys