[from 'tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel 'The Shockwave Rider', via XEROX PARC]
n. 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 write worms. Perhaps the
best-known example was Robert T. Morris's 'Internet 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.
