View Source: Worm - Waikato Linux Users Group

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From the JargonFile::

    <br> [worm | JargonFile:worm], n.:
        ~[from tapeworm in John Brunner's novel The Shockwave Rider, via XEROX PARC]
        A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare [Virus].
        Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only [crackers|JargonFile:cracker] write worms.
        Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's [Great Worm|JargonFile:Great Worm] of 1988, a ‘benign’ one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of [Sun | SunMicrosystems]s and [VAX]en across the U.S.
        <br> See also [cracker | JargonFile:cracker], [RTM | JargonFile:RTM], [Trojan horse | JargonFile:Trojan horse], [ice | JargonFile:ice].

[MyDoom] and many other [Email]-borne malware are [Virus]es, but some of them also reproduce themselves by other means, so the line can be hard to draw.

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Last edited on Saturday, March 19, 2005 12:03:53 pm by AristotlePagaltzis

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