I always believed that viruses and worms were one in the same. Through my research, I have discovered that worms and viruses are indeed different, but often have similar effects to the computers they attack. “A virus is a piece of program code that, like a biological virus, makes copies of itself and spreads by attaching itself to a host, often damaging the host in the process. The host is another computer program, often a computer operating system, which then infects the applications that are transferred to other computers. A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. The main difference between the two is that a virus

o Someone who knows a set of programming interfaces well enough to write novel and useful software without conscious thought on a good day.

o SSomeone who attempts to break into systems or networks in order to help the owners of the system by making them aware of security flaws in it. Many of these people are employed by computer security companies, and are doing something completely legal; and many were formerly illegal hackers.

o Someone who, through either knowledge or trial and error, makes a modification to an existing piece of software, made available to the hacker community, such that it provides a change of functionality.” (www.wikepedia.org, 9/8/2003)

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