The industry is on the cusp of an evolution in computer worms -- those malicious programs that replicate themselves and can spread automatically over the network from one machine to another, wreaking havoc as they go. And that evolution is bringing a new breed of problems for network and security administrators.

"I think there's a lot of potential for damage coming down the pike," says Stephen Trilling, senior director of research at Symantec Corp., an Internet security company based in Cupertino, Calif. "We will see worms with increasing sophistication. We'll see worms with new ways of spreading. We'll see worms that can spread themselves through Instant Messaging...They can steal documents and information from your machine. They can create new holes in your system, and once they've taken over your machine, they can launch attacks from it."

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