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 most of the computers on the Internet.
In the summer of 2001, the [Code Red worm]? was released. It got much publicity because it targeted the [Whitehouse website].