A computer worm is a standalone piece of malware or malicious computer program that spreads to other computers on a network by replicating itself. This is in contrast to computer viruses. It does this by exploiting security vulnerabilities or inadequate security measures on the computers or wider network.
A computer worm uses recursive methods to scan, spread, and infect other computers. Because of this, even computer worms without a specific payload can cause problems on a network by increasing network traffic and other unintended effects.
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