The First Computer Worm

In the world of Cyber Security it is difficult to track down just one name worthy of mention. Looking back over the short history of the Internet, it seems that groups of researchers or even whole institutions contributed to different pieces of cyber security as a whole as opposed to one single person. But, that's a boring answer, so I introduce to you the person who created the first computer worm.

Robert Morris.

Robert Morris, for all intents and purposes, was just your average geek. I mean come on, you didn't really come to this blog post expecting anything less did you? However, unlike most nerds and geeks you'll find these days, Morris was born to an arguably even nerdier and geekier father! Robert Morris Sr. was a computer scientist who helped create the famous Unix operating system and eventually become to work as the head of the National Computer Security Center, the NSA's chief department on all things computer security. The senior Morris was no joke himself.

Robert Morris Jr., his blood flowing with the same DNA of his clearly intelligent father, set out on a path to make his own mark on the Internet in a completely different way. As a graduate student at Cornell University, Morris decided he wanted to gauge the size of the Internet by building a program that would bounce from computer to computer. Thus, Robert Morris created the first ever computer worm. This worm, designed initially to be harmless and simply tell him how many computers there existed on a current network, ended up becoming a destructive virus. The worm would copy itself so many times on one computer it would become unstable and no longer work. It would then travel to another computer, and so and so forth until virtually the entire Internet had crawled to a halt. Although people warnings about the worm were published, they never made it through the backed up Internet traffic casued by the worm. Even after Morris had engineered a solution realizing the mistake he made, he had no way to get it distributed. Morris wound up in court a few months later and found himself on three years of probation with 400 hours of community service to serve. Not bad for accidentally taking down the Internet..

The “Morris Worm”, as it effectively became know, took advantage of several known vulnerabilities in the Unix operating system (I bet you his dad was real happy his son was breaking his stuff!) and even weak password vulnerabilities. While not an intentional research study, the importance of this mere accident can't be over stated. The Morris worm brought the term “computer security” into reality at a time when the Internet was young and naive. It made computer scientists and the military and government realize what was at stake with such vulnerable systems.

The Internet was a lot smaller back then and the realities of a single successful attack made organizations realize that Computer Security was no joke. The Internet was lucky it had been Robert Morris who had started that worm as well. If a malicious hacker hellbent on causing trouble had released such a virus the impact could be have been significant. The positive effects this "white hat" hacker ultimately had on the field of Cyber Security was huge. Data security awareness became a practical application rather than an theory, for example. Awareness in general about the risks and problems associated with vulnerable systems eventually snowballed on into the huge field of Cyber Security we see today, and that's all thanks to Robert Morris.