Computer worm
standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers
A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It will use this machine as a host to scan and infect other computers. When these new worm-invaded computers are controlled, the worm will continue to scan and infect other computers using these computers as hosts, and this behavior will continue. Computer worms use recursive methods to copy themselves without host programs and distribute themselves based on exploiting the advantages of exponential growth, thus controlling and infecting more and more computers in a short time. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
Many worms are designed only to spread, and do not attempt to change the systems they pass through. However, as the Morris worm and Mydoom showed, even these "payload-free" worms can cause major disruption by increasing network traffic and other unintended effects.
History
The first ever computer worm is generally accepted to be a self-replicating version of Creeper created by Ray Tomlinson and Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971 to replicate itself across the ARPANET. Tomlinson also devised the first antivirus software, named Reaper, to delete the Creeper program.
The term "worm" was first used in this sense in John Brunner's 1975 novel, The Shockwave Rider.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Computer worm” as standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q180712. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1975.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Computer worm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.