bacterium

bacterium: A program that attempts to propagate itself by e-mailing a copy of itself to e-mail addresses found on a recipient's hard drive. This is done without the consent or knowledge of the recipient. Note: In many cases, this type of program does not attempt to cause any direct damage to user's system, but rather attempts to overload the e-mail distribution system, much as a successful chain letter would do to the postal system. Synonym [in cryptosystems] chain letter.

This HTML version of Telecom Glossary 2K was last generated on Wed May 8 15:36:48 DT 2002.