What is a worm?



What is the fundamental characteristic that defines a computer worm?

A) A worm causes massive operating system outages

B) A worm intentionally modifies the contents of files

C) A worm captures keystrokes

D) A worm can replicate itself without any user intervention

E) A computer worm eats very little and you won’t even know he’s there


The answer: D) A worm can replicate itself without any user intervention

There are good worms and bad worms, but the thing that sets a worm apart from a virus or spyware is its unique ability to replicate without user intervention. A worm can move from machine to machine without a user clicking any buttons or actively running any programs.

Want to know more? Watch “Security Technologies.”

Data security is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. In this module, we’ll examine some of the basic fundamentals of security such as authentication technologies, file system security, and social engineering.