What is the difference between virus, worm, trojan and malware in a digital system? Are they the same? Most non-technical people would probably heard about computer virus. They simply use the term “virus” even when they are actually referring to other types of malware, such as worm and trojan. Well, they are not always wrong. In several cases, a computer malware can actually be classified into multiple categories, thus making these terms occasionally interchangeable. However, that’s not always the case, and it’s always good to learn to use more accurate term in just about any aspect in our life.
Virus
A digital virus is a dangerous entity that will attach itself to digital files. Few years ago, the term “virus” would only refer to the context of computers. However, now digital virus can also attach various types of digital devices; from smartphones, tablets and even household appliances. There are countless amount of digital viruses, they have different behaviors and produce different impact to our devices. Some virus only creates annoying actions while some other could create serious problem in our device systems. Most viruses would attach themselves into executable file because it needs human action to do something. For example, when we have an executable file infected by virus, that virus will stay there and do no harm UNLESS we execute the file.
Worm
Worm is a dangerous entity in digital system. It has many similar characteristics to virus, with one major difference: worm can do its action WITHOUT human action. So when a computer is infected by worm, it will start doing its actions even the human user does not execute any infected files. This makes worm essentially more dangerous than virus because it can spread and infect other systems as long as there is a way to make digital connection.
Trojan
Trojan is basically a backdoor to our digital devices. The name is taken from Trojan horse from Greek mythological story. Trojan does not have the capability of spreading. Instead, it tries to fool the human user into doing some action that will allow them to be copied into the system. Once copied into the system, the creator can gain ability to do things to our devices, from simply displaying message to stealing sensitive information.
Malware
Malware (malicious software) is the general term for all the bad codes in digital systems.
So virus, worm and trojan ARE malware. Virus can spread, but need human action to do its harm and to spread. Worm is more autonomous, it can do action and spread without human action. Trojan can not spread without human user making mistake allowing them to be downloaded, however, once downloaded it can harm our system without human action anymore.
Then why do we only have anti virus? Where can we get anti worm or anti trojan?
Relax. The term “anti virus” is basically caused by the fact that virus is the first form of malware, therefore most ordinary people are more familiar with the name “virus”.
Most modern anti virus software have the capability to protect our computer/devices against various types of malware, including virus, worm and trojan.
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