What is the concept of defense: The parrying of a blow. What is its characteristic feature: Awaiting the blow.
On War, Carl Von Clausewitz
Key Points
Malicious software is software that is intentionally included or inserted in a system for a harmful purpose.
A virus is a piece of software that can "infect" other programs by modifying them; the modification includes a copy of the virus program, which can then go on to infect other programs.
A worm is a program that can replicate itself and send copies from computer to computer across network connections. Upon arrival, the worm may be activated to replicate and propagate again. In addition to propagation, the worm usually performs some unwanted function.
A denial of service (DoS) attack is an attempt to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service.
A distributed denial of service attack is launched from multiple coordinated sources.
This chapter examines malicious software (malware), especially viruses and worms.
