![]() Besides deleting data, a computer worm can overload networks, consume bandwidth, open a backdoor, diminish hard drive space, and drop other dangerous malware like rootkits, spyware, and ransomware. Instead, it self-propagates, sometimes prolifically after it enters a system. For starters, unlike a virus, a worm doesn’t require human interaction to activate. Many people call the malware "Stuxnet virus" even though it’s not a computer virus - it’s a computer worm. Although both viruses and worms are types of malware that can corrupt files, a computer worm can be far more sophisticated. Jérôme Segura, Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at Malwarebytes Is Stuxnet a virus? ![]() "Very few pieces of malware have garnered the same kind of worldwide attention as Stuxnet." While many types of malware infect a computer through the Internet, another unique feature of the Stuxnet attack in Iran is that the malware was introduced to the PCs via infected USB drives. ![]() As in the case of the major attack in Iran, attackers used Stuxnet to exploit multiple zero-day Windows vulnerabilities, search infected PCs for a connection to the software that controlled the electro-mechanical equipment, and send instructions intended to damage the equipment. While as a computer worm, Stuxnet is malicious software, it has been used to attack electro-mechanical equipment. That attack made global news headlines in 2010 when it was first discovered. As Malwarebytes' Senior Director of Threat Intelligence Jérôme Segura said in his article Stuxnet: new light through old windows, "Very few pieces of malware have garnered the same kind of worldwide attention as Stuxnet." Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm that became infamous in its use to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
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