In the '80s the distinction between a worm and a virus was (sort of) clear. But with the development of the World Wide Web it is now unclear. For example, Code Red which was shouted about recently is a worm most of the time but a virus one day a month. So, what is it? Anyway, originally a virus tried to do damage to files after replicating, but all a worm did was replicate. The first worm accidentally (very bad code) created a 'denial of service' attack on the whole Internet and brought it down completely. And (useless knowlwdge) the father of its author worked for the CIA. The best protection is a scanner which can be updated. I use one which costs $aussie 130 to buy and then $40 a year for the right to update over the net whenever I want to (about 3 times a week). It is set to scan all incoming files and 200 stored files whenever I start the machine. And that runs happily on a 466mhz Celeron. Incorrect email addresses let you know you've got one - I prefer to not get them. Jim Mackay ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 9:11 AM Subject: [RossGen] virus/worms > This isn't really to do with genealogy, although I, too, have been having > the virus/worm problem being sent to me. > > What I would like to know is where (what countries) this nasty thing is > called a virus and where it is called a worm. I also wonder how the > distinction came about, computer people seeming to have their own language. > > Mim > > > ==== ROSSGEN Mailing List ==== > To remove your email address from this list, visit this url: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cheps/maillist.htm >