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How do viruses and worms spread via email?

Latest Update: 01/11/2023

How do viruses and worms spread via email?

Viruses and worms (worms) are dangerous software that can cause economic damage or destroy user data. But do you know how viruses and worms spread on email? Along VNETWORK learn through the following article!

Unlike other common viruses, mail viruses want to operate, it requires human influence. However, not so that they can not threaten the user, but through various sophisticated attacks such as spam emails, email attachments, fake emails, etc. How much is difficult to detect.

Besides, many viruses also carry trojans or backdoors that allow hackers to break into the system or gain unauthorized data access as well as delete all the files on your computer or manually "disseminate" them with how to self-replicate, send emails into the computer systems of the people on your list.

Viruses and worms are extremely dangerous malware

Here are two typical examples of how email viruses work by Symantec:

Worm.ExploreZip is a malicious worm that uses Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Exchange to send itself to unread emails in your mailbox. The virus also finds drivers and other computers on the network to copy itself to the Windows directory of the computer and edit WIN.INI.

This worm can "discolor" all file formats from .h, .c, .cpp, .asm, .doc, .ppt or .xls on your hard drive, as well as other hard drives with the same. if the system is accidentally activated. This process will continue until the worm is removed.

You can identify them through a zipped_files.exe archive. Until activated, it will copy itself to the Windows operating system with the name Explore.exe or setup.exe. This worm will edit the WIN.INI or registry, from which the Explorer.exe file will be run every time you start your computer.

Email viruses infect quickly

In addition, another special case is that email attachments can work automatically without human intervention. That is VBS.BubbleBoy, is a computer worm that works on Windows 98 and Windows 2000. In some cases, this email virus can exist on Windows 95 operating system if Windows Scripting Host is installed.

This virus can automatically "copy" if your computer installed Microsoft Outlook (or Express) with Internet Explorer 5. Specifically, this virus takes advantage of security holes in Microsoft Outlook / IE5 to insert more files. UPDATE.HTA in every email sent. No need to open the file, UPDATE.HTA will be placed in Program-StartUp in the Start menu. This indicates that this infection will not work until you run Windows.

The two cases above show that hackers often take advantage of security holes to attack users for different purposes, harming users, delaying business activities of enterprises, etc. Get security solutions to improve the safety of the system, especially the secure email system, and above all, businesses need to raise awareness of information security for employees, especially knowledge about viruses. and computer worms.

If you are more interested in other security solutions such as Anti-DDoS, and website security, do not hesitate to contact our experts.

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