Computer worm

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. The main difference between the two is that a computer virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program, while a worm is self-contained; it does not need to be part of another program to propogate itself. In addition to replication, a worm may be designed to do any number of things, such as delete files on a host system, or send documents via email.

The first worm, known as the Morris Worm, was written by Robert Morris at the MIT [Artfical Intellegence]? Laboratory. It was released on November 2, 1988, and quickly infected a great many of the computers on the Internet. It propagated through a number of bugs in BSD Unix and its derivatives. Morris himself was convicted under the US Computer Crime and Abuse Act, received 3 years probation, community service and a fine in excess of $10,000.

In the summer of 2001, the [Code Red worm]? was released. It was just another computer worm but it got much publicity because it targeted the [Whitehouse website].