Network worms and protection from them. Types of worms in the network

Do you know what network worms are? They are a specific, special type of virus. The common malware environment is the file system, and worms get to our devices through the network. In addition, they can get to the PC not only via e-mail or the Internet, they are subject to other network technologies. Therefore, the topic of this article is network worms and protection against them. After all, they penetrate both networks of mobile network operators, and local LAN-networks, and IRC-networks for chats, and P2P networks, designed for direct file exchange between users directly, and a network of services used for instant messaging.

Some of the history of network worms

The first information about their action appeared in 1978. Jon Hopp and John Shoch, Xerox company programmers, asked about the collection and processing of information from all computers to one central. After a while, each company PC, having processed the required amount of work, passed the result to the program written by our programmers, and she, while being on the local network, processing the data, sent them to the central computer. Very quickly, friends lost control of their program and for a long time could not understand what was happening.

There was uncontrolled traffic, then the whole network was blocked. After investigating the problem, programmers discovered a variety of viruses, which were called network viruses. Older computer users should also remember w32.Blaster.worm, a worm that infected Windows 2000 to XP and did not start up on the Internet, restarting the computer. In November 1988, the "Morris Worm" became known, infecting 10% of all world computers due to a small error of the author of the code. For a whole week, these PCs did not function, damaging about $ 100 million. Therefore, such a topic as network worms and protection against them is very important and its significance only increases with time.

Types of network worms and their paths to the computer

What are these problems? Minor - to penetrate into your device, activate it and start multiplying, but not only in your PC. Hence the main task is to get through the network through other people's devices. What are they, their types? The main part of this particular virus is email worms that get into the computer with a file attached to the e-mail. The user himself activates it, trying to open it. This is especially true for inexperienced programmers who do not notice anything suspicious about the extension of the file being launched, as often only false is seen.

Therefore, one always needs to follow the old recommendation - not to react to letters from unknown people. Once activated, the network viruses find email addresses on the device and send them a copy of their loved one. In a similar way worms "creep" through IRC clients, ICQ, and other similar messengers. Sometimes they penetrate into the PC because of the gaps in the operating system, software and browsers. There are other types of network worms: IRC worms, P2P worms and IM worms. We think, with the names it's clear what they do and how they get to the PC.

Other tasks of network worms and their signs on the computer

Their principle of operation is similar to that of some other malware, such as Trojans. After completing their main task, they begin to perform other tasks. Among them: the installation of programs to manage (deleted) the infected computer, stealing data, destroying them, that is all that they were programmed by the creator.

But even without these additional actions, the volume of traffic increases on the device, performance drops, communication channels are loaded. This is an obvious sign of a worm in the system. If the work of the antivirus is blocked, then this is another fact to which you need to pay attention. It may even be blocked access to the sites of the anti-virus software.

How to protect yourself against network worms?

We have considered the first part of the expression well enough - network worms and protection against them, now proceed to the second. We want to immediately warn that a regular antivirus that has a basic functionality will not help you, at best it will reveal the very fact of the threat and block it. But this does not prevent another company from maliciously climbing to you through the network again. But if your PC is connected to a network, a good antivirus is a necessary condition for its operation.

Protection against network worms is included in the functionality of the operating system itself. It has tools for this, which, at a minimum, significantly reduce the risks of infection. The main one is an automatic OS update and an activated firewall / firewall. In pirate assemblies, this is often turned off, which is fraught with serious problems. After all, it is the firewall that checks all the data arriving on the computer network, and decides whether to skip them or not.

Third-party protection against network worms

In order to strengthen the protection of the computer against network worms, hackers and other viruses, it is recommended to install an external firewall as an alternative solution. Such programs, due to a narrower focus, have more flexible settings. The users are popular: Comodo Firewall - completely free software and Outpost Firewall Pro - paid.

In order to be constantly in the chicken of all the novelties of fighting against the new "infection", we recommend that you contact the viruslist ru. Network worms are there all the way, the appearance of new worms is tracked, and you will immediately know about it. By the way, besides well-known antiviruses, worms block access to the VirusInfo resource, which has a service for free treatment of devices from various infections.

conclusions

In a few sentences, the whole life cycle of the development of network worms is briefly compatible:

1. Penetration into your system.
2. An important point is activation.
3. Search for potential victims.
4. Production and preparation of copies.

Further spread of copies.

Now draw conclusions. We hope that you have already fully understood what network worms are, and protection against them is real at the very first stage. Then there will be no problems. So protect your computer from penetrating the threat, and do not then have to spend a lot of effort to combat the consequences.