Worms:

These are small pieces of software that makes use of computer networks and security holes found in them to replicate and spread. Most worms are written to detect and exploit a specific security hole or flaw. Once a computer on a network is discovered with the appropriate weakness, it gets attacked and infected by the worm. The worm then scans the network looking for another computer with the same hole and the process repeats. Now there are two computers for it to replicate from. The process continually repeats itself, but with the speed of today’s computers and networks, a network of say 50 computers and a properly engineered worm can easily infect all 50 computers in the network in under an hour. Perhaps the most famous worm of recent times was Code Red. In July of 2001 it replicated itself over 250,000 times in just nine hours.

A worm is similar to a virus by its design, and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, it has the ability to travel without any help from a person. A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which allows it to travel unaided. The biggest danger with a worm is its ability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect. One example would be for a worm to send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver's address book, and the manifest continues on down the line. Due to the copying nature of a worm and its ability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers, and individual computers to stop responding. In more recent worm attacks such as the much talked about .Blaster Worm., the worm has been designed to tunnel into your system and allow malicious users to control your computer remotely.

For more information or to secure your network against work attacks, please contact us.