great worm

2 definitions found

great worm - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Internet Worm
  Great Worm
  
     <networking, security> The November 1988 worm perpetrated by
     Robert T. Morris.  The worm was a program which took
     advantage of bugs in the Sun Unix sendmail program,
     Vax programs, and other security loopholes to distribute
     itself to over 6000 computers on the Internet.  The worm
     itself had a bug which made it create many copies of itself on
     machines it infected, which quickly used up all available
     processor time on those systems.
  
     Some call it "The Great Worm" in 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 hack was a sort of devastating
     watershed event in hackish history; certainly it did more to
     make non-hackers nervous about the Internet than anything
     before or since.
  
     (1995-01-12)
  

great worm - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  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.