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 cracker s write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's Great Worm of 1988, a benign one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker , RTM , Trojan horse , ice.