Morris Worm

The first computer worm, written by Robert Morris. It was released on November 2, 1988 and spread throughout most of the Internet.

The jargon file refers to this as the "Great Worm":

Great Worm n.

The 1988 Internet worm perpetrated by RTM. This is a play on Tolkien (compare elvish, elder days). In the fantasy history of his Middle Earth books, there were dragons powerful enough to lay waste to entire regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung) were known as "the Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation that the RTM crack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hacker history; certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the Internet than anything before or since.

/Talk