"Microsoft is taking a leaf out of the virus writers' handbook, hoping to use friendly "worms" to distribute software patches surreptitiously. Like the malicious worms that spread from computer to computer by self-replicating and automatically seeking out new computers to infect, the friendly worms will be used to distribute updates to users without forcing them to download anything from a central server. The research is being spearheaded by a team from Microsoft Research in Britain, and opens up the possibility of worm races between virus writers and the software companies to see who can reach vulnerable machines faster..."