A Worm is a type of virus that is usually associated with computer networks, but not always. They almost always do something malicious, such as consuming computer resources and freezing up processes. An infected computer will spread the Worm to all users on a network. It will replicate and send itself out on the internet to infect other internet users. Software such as Norton Anti-Virus can prevent the spread of worms and also helps to clean infected files if they are altered by the worm.
As mentioned, Anti-Virus programs are reasonably effective at killing