Slapper

Use of the terms 'virus' and 'worm' reinforce the analogy of the biological characteristics of the entities. '...some authorities (including Fred Cohen the 'father' of computer virology) regard worms as a subset of the genus virus....It can be said that the worm infects the environment (an operating system or mail system for instance) rather than specific infectable objects such as files.' 2 It would appear however (and perhaps unfortunately) that the terms are sometimes used interchangeably especially in the mainstream (and sometimes even industry) media. Given the absence of user interaction I am inclined to consider worms a bit more insidious. As stated above 'they just spread'.