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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