

The same can be said of the difference between malware and worm because malware encompasses worms. Therefore, the difference between malware and a virus is not as much of a factor as is the difference between a virus and a worm. Several users can download the same or different viruses, and figuring out where they came from, especially if they did not come from the same emails or websites, can present a significant challenge. At that point, system administrators can use relatively basic forensic analysis to figure out where the worm came from. If, for example, a worm has to go through a firewall as it tries to go from one computer to the next, the firewall may detect it. Viruses and worms are both self-replicating pieces of malware/code that intend to alter or damage the system files of. As a result, viruses and worms can be categorized as types of malware. Because the worm is designed to spread from one computer to another, it risks the chance of exposing itself with each lateral move. In summary, the term malware is a catch-all term used to refer to any malicious piece of code or program, like a virus or a worm.

In many situations, a worm's functionality can also work against itself. For example, a single website that several users visit can download a virus to their computers, and when they open the file containing the virus, all of them can get infected. On the surface, a worm, which is also referred to as a worm virus, will appear more dangerous than a virus, but because computers within an organization's network interact with the internet often more than they do with each other, viruses can be just as dangerous.
