Re: [NTLK] [OT] Virus attacks on NTLK/Newton-related mailaccounts

From: Jon Glass (jonglass_at_usa.net)
Date: Fri Apr 16 2004 - 23:55:37 PDT


> On Apr 16, 2004, at 12:51 PM, David Ensteness wrote:
>
>> Accuracy my friend ...
>>
>> Worms are called worms because of what they do. Viruses are social
>> engineering attacks, worms travel in an automated fashion of some sort
>> or another.
>>
> <snip>

Interesting... I always thought that "viruses" were called viruses because
of how they worked programmatically--In other words, like a virus is
incomplete by itself, and must invade a host cell and use it to replicate
itself, so electronic viruses work by attaching themselves to host code, and
then, by using this launched host code, replicate themselves by attaching
themselves to other host codes. I caught the nVir virus many years ago on my
Mac, and within a couple days, I had a real mess! This discusses merely the
means of replication... Virus needs host.

I thought a worm was a program that did what worms do--bore their way into a
system, but are free-standing programs. They don't need a host code to
replicate themselves. Again, what is under discussion is how it replicates
itself.. A worm simply copies itself, without the use of a host program...

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've thought this for years.
The descriptions given above don't jive with what I've thought.

-- 
-Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net>
"[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have
ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of
property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have
been violent in their deaths." --James Madison
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