The Morris Internet worm

Robert Morris is popularly known as the creator of the Morris Worm. In 1988, this Cornell University student created a computer “worm” as part of an experiment that ended up crashing tens of thousands of computers due to a coding error.?The worm – a term referring to malware that spreads through computer networks – was initially created by Morris as an experiment to measure the size of ARPANET, an experimental computer network that was the forerunner of the Internet.

The worm spread widely because it had multiple attack vectors, exploiting a backdoor in the Internet e-mail system and a bug in the “finger” program that identified network users. It was also designed to remain hidden. The worm did not damage or destroy files, but it was still very powerful. Many services at universities and other organizations slowed down during this critical situation, with emails delayed for weeks. Many organizations began to take desperate actions such as deleting their files, while others disconnected their computers from the network for a week.

A bug in the code transformed the worm from a potentially harmless and intellectual computing exercise into a viral denial of service attack.?The worm started replicating itself on each computer several times, slowing these computers down to the point of rendering them unusable. Morris was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, resulting in a three-year prison sentence, 400 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine. A Harvard spokesman estimated the economic damages at between $100,000 and $10,000,000. Currently, the Morris worm source code is kept on a 3.5" floppy disk at The Computer History Museum. A text accompanying the disk reads:?

This disk contains the complete source code of the Morris Internet worm program. This tiny, 99-line program brought large pieces of the Internet to a standstill on November 2nd, 1988. The worm was the first of many intrusive programs that use the Internet to spread.?

One of the positive aspects of such events is that, since this incident, network security issues have become a major concern.?